The Cards That We've Been Dealt

Chapters

For What It's Worth
Chances Are... We're Stuck Here
Ain't No Black Mountain High Enough

For What It's Worth

You know, there’s something bittersweet about how quickly your life can change and the chain of events that unfold because of it. For some, life is linear. Point A to Point B, before the inevitable end and then… that’s it. Simple, quiet… maybe boring, maybe easy. Others, life is wild, mysterious. Never knowing what’s around the corner, full of change. Life is different for everypony, but yet- in a way- also the same. Full of ups, downs, changes, challenges, surprises of all sizes. For a couple of teenage mares like we once were, our lives were both complicated and yet so easy and simple. Crushes, heartbreaks, gossip, peer pressure, educational pressure and all the other typical teenage woes and yays.

Things were a bit harder for me than they were for Anova before the big change. Being a changeling was hard enough, especially after the defeat at Canterlot my fellow changelings and I suffered. I had deserted the hive not long after, traveling as far as possible to put as much space between me and the hive as I could muster. There was always the lingering fear somepony would discover my secret, that the genuine loving, caring world I had worked hard to build and the friends I had gained would come crumbling down. A lingering fear that I’d become more of an outcast than I already had been.

Anova was the only one who knew and the only pony I trusted to tell. She was both my sister and best friend wrapped into one. Me being a changeling never bothered her, never scared her. In fact, the only regrets I had ever experienced with revealing my true nature to her were the millions of questions, scientific probing and ‘samples’ that were asked of me. Minor regrets, ones that were worth experiencing. Before the big change, Anova spent most of her time entertaining and working on the various scientific theories and projects her brain cooked up. She was more worried about advancing the sciences of ponykind and finding a way to safely and effectively merge it with magical applications than becoming prom queen or if the hot stallion from math class was single and interested.

That was most of the time, but Anova wasn’t incapable of having fun or experiencing all the other things us of average or lesser intelligence were going through. A good majority of the time, I didn’t fully understand anything Anova was going on about when it came to her projects, but I was always there for her. They brought her joy and excitement, gave her a purpose. Most of her experiments and projects- although well meaning and good in theory- ended in failure and caused a bit of trouble. I eventually lost track of how many times her parents had to fix the walls of the garage, how many times she had to do menial jobs for the neighbors, our school or our classmates because of it.

It was hard sometimes seeing her fail so often. I felt bad for her, but maybe it was me feeling bad on her behalf. Anova never gave up. When one project or experiment failed, she didn’t give up. She kept trying. I both admired and was mildly annoyed- sometimes concerned- by her perseverance. There were many days where she hadn’t slept, ate or did anything other than work on her projects. Were it not for me or her parents, Anova probably would have died from starvation or sleep deprivation. Sometimes life was hard for us, sometimes it was easy, sometimes in between. Anova never gave up, she had purpose. Even now, I still don’t know my purpose… if I was meant to have one. I do know, though, that no matter how hard or mundane life became, I kept going for Anova. I wouldn’t say she was my purpose, my reason for being alive, but I knew I needed her just as much as she needed me. Maybe more.

Our lives are so vastly different now than they were then. It’s almost impossible to imagine we’d end up here of all places. Displaced in a world not our own, forced to survive in the aftermaths of war we had no part in only to be caught in another, more present war. One that would determine our survival and the survival of thousands of strangers. One that changed my life forever. One that meant we could never go home. Almost makes me feel dumb for worrying over potentially failing tests or if Blaze Sunrise from Ms. Berry’s math class liked me the way I liked him. Our worries then paled in comparison to the ones we carried now.

The calms in between the storms gave us time to think about our old lives and the good times that were had. I still fondly remember the time our school took a week-long trip to a popular amusement park up near Las Pegasus. We were juniors in high school then and absolutely ecstatic to be there. We visited every attraction and spent just about every bit our parents gave us buying overpriced souvenirs. What really cemented this memory in my brain was the trouble Anova and I got into while there. Anova had cooked up these bracelet-like devices that would- in theory- make us completely invisible. While on the trip, we tested them by attempting to sneak into a staff-only area and explore the behind-the-scenes of the park.

To my surprise then- and even now- they actually worked as intended. In the beginning, at least. Anova tried to explain how they worked, but I didn’t quite grasp it. Something about refracting or reflecting light. We were actually invisible and it was thrilling. We snuck around those tunnels and hallways, saw unsuspecting mascots changing hooves or heading for an appearance at a different part of the park. We even ‘collected’ little things- things they wouldn’t miss- as ‘free’ souvenirs.

Trouble began, though, while we were using our newfound invisibility to watch actors dressed as the Power Ponies practice using their pretend powers to wow would-be crowds. The bracelets were these technological devices powered by these small orbs of magical energy that Anova had created. Mana Cores, she called them. No matter how she tweaked them, they always proved to be a bit too unstable in the end. Such was the case with the invisibility bracelets. The Cores overheated the bracelets and ultimately caused them to short circuit. Not only did that hurt and almost electrocute my soul out of my body, it caused us to be spotted.

Even though we were neck-deep in trouble and her invention proved to be only a partial success, we couldn’t help but laugh as we tried our best to run away from security. They almost caught us when we were so close to the exit, but- in a stroke of luck- the Mana Cores caused the bracelets to start to smoke. ‘Chuck ‘em! The Cores are gonna blow’, I remember her exclaiming. Ah, they were always prone to exploding everywhere and these ones certainly did explode the very moment they left our hooves. Between the smoke and the bits of bracelet flying in every direction, it provided enough time and cover for us to make a clean escape. Too bad we were caught later, though, when a member of staff recognized us. We were suspended from school for a week and grounded for a month, but it was worth it.

That was so long ago now, almost an eternity it seems. Things have been so incredibly different for so long, it almost seems like those memories are nothing more than dreams. Those dream-like memories have been almost completely replaced by the memories I’ve gained living in this unforgiving, god-forsaken sandbox in an alien world. Most of those are memories of the part I’ve played in a war we got drug into unknowingly and unwillingly. I’ve done things- and seen things- I would have never thought in a million years I’d do… or see. We both have. Our lives here and the things we’ve experienced and seen firsthoof are equal parts tragic, inspiring, sad, heartwarming and gut wrenching.

Well, honestly, it’s been more tragic and haunting than anything. Since the beginning, I’ve wanted nothing more than for us to go home. Even now, as I lay here wounded and dying, I want us to go home. Even if we had the opportunity, though, there’s no way we could ever go back to Equestria or our old lives. After adapting to this harsh, savage world and the things we’ve done to survive another sunrise, it would be hard- almost impossible- to adapt back to Equestrian life. I’d like to see it one last time regardless. Now more than ever. Victory always comes with a price and it’s one it looks like I’ll be paying soon enough.

That’s why I’m recording this on this little gray square. A holotape, I think Anova called it. When I’m gone, I want my story to be remembered. I want to be remembered. I know they’ll regard me a hero, call me a legend. Well, they already do, but how long until I’m forgotten? Months? Years? Centuries? Even with this recording, I know I’ll fade into obscurity eventually, but maybe this tape will prolong it. All the suffering and enduring I’ve through, everything I’ve witnessed and now being so close to death… The very thought of going through all this, all just to be forgotten? All the sacrifices I’ve made, just to end up all for nothing and wind up an unimportant nobody when my time comes?

It’s terrifying, scares me to my core. All this rambling and philosophy I’ve gone on and on about, it’s honestly funny how having death hover around so closely can change somepony. Maybe I’m just being overdramatic. I probably am. I suppose if I don’t get to the point, this tape’ll be a waste of my dying breath and I’d kick the bucket before I’m finished. Maybe if I make it, I’ll tell you more in depth about our lives in Equestria. I don’t think I will, though. Make it, that is. Things are looking… less than stellar. Pretty grim, you know? What better place to start our story than the beginning of the end? Our last day- last hours- in Equestria. Our last day of normality. Well… It all started on the day of our high school’s annual science fair…

"And you're sure these aren't going to, you know... explode? Again?"

The purple coated mare looked at her doubtful friend with a look of mild irritation. Anova raised her eyebrows as she huffed out a sigh and rolled her golden-colored eyes. She resumed her last minute adjustments to the two tube-like inventions she had spent the last year pouring her heart and soul into. These inventions stood about two adult-sized ponies tall and could fit at least three inside comfortably.

The matte gray tops and bottoms were identical in nearly every way, circular with thin rings of black within and four rectangular pieces that were placed one on each side of the main circles. The sole difference between the two were the metallic centers. The bottom center was colored blue while the top center was colored red. Connecting the pads to the top were two thick glass panels, one of which was affixed to a sliding track that allowed entry inside them. On the inside the stationary panels were small yellow and gray boxes with a singular red button. On the outside was a small yellow computer with an empty black screen and built-in keyboard. The buttons on the keyboard were a dark gray with red symbols and letters on them.

“Yes, yes, yes. I’m POSITIVE they’re not going to explode,” Anova said through gritted teeth “have some faith, Bezzy, won’t you?”

“I always have faith your inventions will work. Faith doesn’t stop them from exploding, though,” Bezezelle quipped, stifling a laugh.

“Augh! You drive me nuts sometimes, you know that, bugbrain?” Anova exasperated as she threw a wad of paper at her.

“Love you too, nerdbrain,” Bezezelle playfully mocked.

“You’re gonna love it when this screwdriver finds its way up your derriere if you keep it up,” Anova threatened.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time if you’re not gonna keep your end of the bargain,” Bezezelle teased.

“Kinky bitch,” Anova muttered under her breath.

“Only for you, my dear,” Bezezelle continued to tease.

“Okay, love you, mean it, but… could you kindly go stand in the corner or something until I’m done?” Anova questioned with a small sigh “you can aggravate me later. You know, when I’m not working on something important?”

“Aww, am I in time out now, sissy?” Bezezelle questioned, faking a pout.

Anova looked at Bezezelle and glared harshly as she pointed to a corner on the opposite side of the garage. Bezezelle humored the request and trotted over to the appointed corner, all the while pretending to be sad about the ‘punishment’ dished out to her. Anova let out another sigh and shook her head as she resumed her last minute touch-ups. A few minutes passed by before the garage door swung open and smacked against the concrete walls. In the doorway stood Anova’s brash, snot-nosed younger brother. He wore a large, snarky grin on his face as he peered down into the garage with his magenta eyes.

The young colt was a unicorn just like his parents and sister. Short and squat, his powder blue coat and dark brown mane were neatly brushed for the school day. A neatness that would only last until recess, if Anova and Bezezelle knew the kid well. He stomped down the first couple of steps that led into the garage and then took a seat. His current attitude gave off ‘recently-promoted-to-CEO-so-now-I’m-better-than-you’ vibes to Bezezelle, something that was an often occurrence.

“Hey, buttheads! Mom says it’s time to leave, like, right now!” He barked proudly “pack up your nerdy projects and let’s go!”

“We’ll be up in a minute, Jet Force. Now scram before I stuff you in the mailbox,” Anova said in a mostly dismissive tone.

“I’m gonna tell mom you said you were gonna stuff me in the mailbox, you meanie,” Jet Force huffed, his face crinkling in anger.

“Don’t call me a butthead, then. Be a meanie to me, it’s only fair that I be a meanie back,” Anova sneered.

“Nuh-uh!” Jet Force argued back.

“Jet Force! SCRAM!” Anova exclaimed angrily.

“Butthead!” Jet Force huffed as he quickly turned and left.

The young brat slammed the door behind him, his stomps audible as he stormed off on his way to likely to complain to their mother. Anova rose from the stool she had been sitting on and roughly packed up the tools sprawled over the workbench into her toolbox. Bezezelle quietly left her corner and approached Anova as she packed up the various equipment she needed. She reassuringly patted her best friend on the shoulder.

“Hey, relax some, okay? I know the two of us have danced all over your nerves this morning, but today’s the big day,” Bezezelle said in a sympathetic tone “if we want everything to go right, we’ve got to be in a good state of mind.”

“Tch. Danced all over my nerves indeed,” Anova mumbled with a long, annoyed sigh.

“Hey, hey. What kind of dog does a scientist keep?” Bezezelle questioned as she playfully nudged Anova.

“Hmm, one that helps the scientist get their inventions to the wagon for the school science fair?” Anova answered, raising her brows.

“Close, but naaah. The correct answer is… laboratory retrievers!” Bezezelle revealed with an over exaggerated laugh.

“Tch. That was soooo corny,” Anova said as she tried not to laugh “laboratory retrievers. Heh, that was a good one, though. I’ll give you that.”

Anova gave Bezezelle a small grin as she packed the last of her tools and used her gold-colored magic to place the toolbox in the back of her family’s wagon. Bezezelle lent a hoof in getting Anova’s inventions into the back of the wagon, which they then secured with what Bezezelle felt was an unnecessary amount of multicolored bungee cords. Although the weather forecast called for clear, sunny skies all day, Anova then secured a blue tarp over the wagon to shield her hard work from any sneaky, rouge rain clouds. With the devices snuggly secured to the wagon, Bezezelle volunteered to pull the wagon and secured the harness around her waist.

Anova walked alongside the wagon as the pair united with the rest of the family at the end of their home’s walkway. Jet Force sat on his mother’s back with a pouty look on his face, still clearly upset with his older sister. Their mother- Lila Love- was a tall, slender and very attractive mare with a well kept lavender coat, curled turquoise and soft yellow striped hair and big, expressive magenta eyes. She was very well known and twice as popular in their hometown of Potter’s Fray, not only because of her good looks and charming personality, but thanks to the modeling career that landed her in numerous fashion and beauty magazines all over the country.

Their father- on the hoof- was noticeably smaller in height than the average stallion. Despite the few wrinkles on his face and numerous wiry gray hairs mixed in with the dark brown in both his mane and facial hair, fellow townsfolk often accidentally mistook Kelvin Comet for somepony around his daughter’s age. That was, at least, until they viewed his face and realized he was- in fact- an almost-sixty-year-old stallion. Anova inherited her father’s eyes and coat, as well his earnest love for technology.

If Bezezelle hadn’t been so well acquainted and loved by Anova’s family, she might have- like some of the townsfolk- found the twenty-one year age gap between Anova’s parents to be strange. More than anything, Bezezelle found it sweet and endearing, as the two were happily married and deeply in love. Having lived with them for so long and gotten to know their story by heart, it really annoyed Bezezelle when her classmates would accuse Mrs. Lila of being a ‘gold digger’ or using Mr. Kelvin as a ‘sugar daddy’. She made sure to remind them that- despite his well paying engineering job- Anova’s mother made twice the amount her father did.

“You’re sure your whatchamacallits are going to work, Novie?” Mr. Kelvin questioned as the duo approached.

“Should I go with the two of you to school, darling? Just in case they, you know…” Mrs. Lila trailed off and mimicked the sound of an explosion with her mouth.

“Ugh! Mom, dad, just because past experiments exploded doesn’t mean these will!” Anova exclaimed in annoyance.

“Mr. Kelvin, sir, she’s calling them ‘Instantaneous Teleportation Pads’. It might be easier to remember if you call them ITPs,” Bezezelle said with a reassuring smile “but they’ll work, sir. These won’t explode.”

“I know you mean well, but could you for once believe in me and have faith that, this time, something of mine will work?” Anova questioned, her eyebrows raised in irritation.

“I’m sorry, Novie. We didn’t mean it like that,” Mrs. Lila said apologetically “of course we believe in you. We just worry for your safety, that's all.”

“Relax, I’m not gonna get hurt. As a safety precaution, I designed them to contain an explosion if something does go wrong,” Anova explained with an exasperated sigh “but nothing will, because they’ll work this time!”

“They’re fruit, school supply, children’s toy and insect tested and approved,” Bezezelle said, trying to maintain an air of reassurance “we only lost a few apples and pencils, but the rest stayed intact… and alive.”

“Well, I’m not a religious stallion, but I pray you’ll stay ‘intact and alive’ when you go to demonstrate your thingamajigs,” Mr. Kelvin said, patting his daughter on the shoulder.

“ITPs, dear,” Mrs. Lila gently reminded her husband.

“That’s what I said,” Mr. Kelvin said with a dismissive wave of his hoof “now, off to school we go!”

Mrs. Lila chuckled softly as she shook her head in response to his comment. Mr. Kelvin trotted off and cheerfully led the group to town to drop the kids off at school. Potter’s Fray was one of the bigger towns on the west coast, shadowed only by Vanhoover and Las Pegasus. While not as popular or considered as a city like the two, Potter’s Fray was still a flourishing, busy town that came close to reaching that status with each passing day. At least, that was what Bezezelle had been told by Anova’s father, but she had no reason to doubt the validity of the statements. It was a beautiful place filled with numerous amazing ponies and fun things to do, and that’s all that mattered to Bezezelle.

After the disaster that was Queen Chrysalis’s siege on Canterlot, word of her defeat had unsurprisingly reached Potter’s Fray. Being a former soldier who had been present at the siege and one of the many to have fought the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, Bezezelle knew their opinions on her kind and walked amongst them disguised as an ordinary earth pony. Her disguise- and alias- was inspired by the mascot featured on the billboard she had landed next to upon her arrival to Potter’s Fray on a dark, moonless night. The billboard had been an advertisement for a beverage popular and only found in Potter’s Fray; Rocket Pop.

Meeting Anova had been a chance encounter in the town’s most popular park that occurred a couple of weeks after Bezezelle’s arrival. The former seemed to have taken a keen interest in Bezezelle after bumping into her and personally welcomed her to the town. Upon learning Bezezelle had no place to call home, Anova invited her to home and introduced her family. After that, Bezezelle had a permanent place in the family’s home and was now like an adopted daughter and sibling to them. It was something that Bezezelle was forever grateful for and never took for granted, but something she also feared losing if anypony learned of her big secret.

Anova was the only member of the family- and the only pony in town- who not only knew her true nature, but had seen her true form and knew her real name. It excited Anova to have a best friend who was secretly a shapeshifting bugpony. She once admitted to Bezezelle that one of her numerous reasons to keep her secret was that she was somewhat unwilling to share that excitement with anypony else, not even her own family. An odd admission, but one that warmed Bezezelle’s heart every time it crossed her mind.

“Do you two need help with getting your doohickies into the gymnasium?” Mr. Kelvin questioned.

The inquiry pulled Bezezelle from her thoughts and back to reality. Jet Force had already been dropped off at his K-8 school a couple of blocks away and now the four of them stood just outside the highschool’s gate.

“Daaaad! Ugh!” Anova whined with a pouty look “you can recite the entirety of your work manual by heart word for word but can’t even remember the acronym for my inventions?”

“Wha- Of course I remember! RGBs, right?” Mr. Kelvin scoffed proudly.

“Not even close, darling. She calls them ITPs for short,” Mrs. Lila said as she patted his shoulder.

“That’s what I said!” Mr. Kelvin exclaimed “Sheesh, I know I’m getting old, but maybe you should get your hearing checked out, hunny bun.”

“In that case, ‘oldielocks’, let’s go to the ear doctor and let the kids get set up for the fair,” Mrs. Lila said with a petty smirk.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m itchin’ what you’re scratching,” Mr. Kelvin said dismissively.

“Nopony says that anymore, dad. Try ‘I’m picking up the vibes’ or something,” Anova teased “you know, to stay ‘hip and young’ and all that.”

“Tch. ‘Vibe’ yourself to that gymnasium, smartypants,” Mr. Kelvin teased back.

With that, Anova’s parents began to trot away towards the direction that had previously come from. Mrs. Lila looked back at the pair of teens and waved goodbye to them.

“We love you, darlings. Have a wonderful day at school,” Mrs. Lila called out as she blew a kiss “stay safe and out of trouble... Anova.”

“Oh, and Atom Bunny, dear, would you please keep Anova on track during the presentation? We know just how… enthusiastic she can be,” Mrs. Lila added.

“Hehe, don’t worry, Mrs. Lila. I’ll keep her on the rails, I promise,” Bezezelle assured with a big smile.

“Bye mom, bye dad! We’ll see you after school!” Anova called out “love you too!”

Anova turned to Bezezelle and flashed a grin of excitement. Bezezelle returned the same grin before turning and leading the pair to the school’s outside entrance for the gym. The double doors were propped open as wide as they would go and allowed entry to the slow stream of students bringing in their entries to the annual science fair. The doors were guarded by the school’s head principal and vice principal, who greeted each student who walked past and complimented their entries.

As Anova and Bezezelle approached, the pair of principals looked over at them. Their eyes gazed up at the tarp-covered contents, then looked at each other with regretful looks on their faces. Bezezelle knew and understood why. She even sympathized with them. Anova had the reputation of ‘that one student’ who always took science class and the science fair ‘way too seriously’ amongst the entirety of the school population. In a school environment, maybe that was partly true, but Bezezelle knew science was simply Anova’s greatest passion and hobby. Something she loved dearly and- perhaps- at times did take it a bit too seriously. Bezezelle couldn’t fault her for that.

The principals- to an extent- knew and understood that like Bezezelle did, but it didn’t take much imagining to sympathize with the amount of trouble, money and paperwork they would go through when Anova would reveal a new invention on school grounds. Bezezelle couldn’t speak for the complete authenticity of it, but apparently the school had an entire separate budget set aside solely for damages incurred by the failure of Anova’s experiments. A budget that Bezezelle heard was mostly funded by Anova’s parents. Regardless of the truth and despite the regrets they had for allowing Anova to participate, Bezezelle knew the principals admired Anova’s drive and passion for learning.

Once, Bezezelle even overheard the head principal telling members of staff that- as annoying as constantly repairing parts of the school was- it was wrong to ban her from participating in events like the annual science fair. ‘Someday, she’ll figure out a rhythm that works’, she had told them ‘but until then, she’ll experiment with what she knows and blow up walls in the process’.

“Good morning, Atom Bunny. Good morning, Anova,” Head Principal Sandy Breeze greeted with a smile.

Principal Breeze was a unicorn mare roughly the same age as Anova’s mother. Bezezelle was almost certain Ms. Breeze was older than Mrs. Lila, but she had no proof as the head principal kept her age a secret from the students. Ms. Breeze was average sized in height but more on the plump side in terms of weight. As usual, she wore a dark blue suit jacket with a white ruffle dress shirt underneath that contrasted with her teal colored coat, short blonde bob and rose colored eyes.

“Good morning, Principal Breeze,” Anova greeted back, maintaining her excited grin.

“Good morning!” Bezezelle cheerfully greeted back.

“What, uh, ‘delightful’ inventions are you submitting for this year’s entry?” Vice Principal Silver Note asked Anova with a strained smile.

Vice Principal Note was an earth pony a bit older in age wearing similar attire, except their jacket was black and featured a silver rose lapel pin on the chest pocket. Mx. Note had a beige colored coat and long, curly silver and white striped hair. Their carrot color eyes hid behind a pair of round, black framed glasses. Everypony knew Mx. Note wasn’t a morning pony and knew to not take what came across as unfriendliness personally. By the end of the day, Mx. Note was a blast to be around and always had everypony laughing with their corny jokes and assortment of amatuer magic tricks.

“I call them ‘Instantaneous Teleportation Pads’, something I know will change ponykind in the best way possible for a long time to come,” Anova answered excitedly.

“And I’m assuming you’re pairing with Anova on this entry… as usual, Bunny?” Mx. Note asked Bezezelle.

“Yes, Vice Principal,” Bezezelle answered with a small nod.

“Alright, then. Will you two need a Lot with access to an outlet?” Mx. Note questioned.

“Do you even need to ask? Of course not! These works of art are powered by-”

“Your ‘Mana Cores’. Yes, we’re aware, Anova. Very well aware,” Ms. Breeze interrupted with a small sigh “which is why I’ve reserved Lot 37 for your entry.”

“Aww, we always get Lot 37. Can’t we be in a more front and center Lot this year?” Anova whined “I don’t want to be in the same corner every science fair!”

“I’m sorry, Anova. It’s just for safety purposes and damage control,” Ms. Breeze said apologetically “I understand your frustration, but once you’re able to properly stabilize your wonderful inventions, then I’ll make sure to have you front and center, okay?”

“Prepare to have us front and center then, because I know without a doubt these are a hundred percent stable!” Anova said proudly.

“Well, in that case, we look forward to seeing your entry in action, Anova,” Ms. Breeze said with a kind smile “but it’s Lot 37 for now.”

“Ugh, okay, fine,” Anova said defeatedly.

Ms. Breeze patted Anova on the shoulder reassuringly before gesturing for her and Bezezelle to enter the gym.

“Oh, and you’ll need to leave the wagon outside, Bunny,” Mx. Note said as they gestured to an empty spot in the grass behind themselves.

Bezezelle looked from the Vice Principal to the wagon she pulled, then two the gym doors. A beige colored metal pole was fixed in the center of the doorframe. Its presence prevented Bezezelle from walking through with the wagon still attached. She looked back at them and raised her eyebrows as if to say ‘you don’t say’ without uttering a word. Mx. Note simply shrugged in response as Bezezelle turned and parked the wagon in the grass nearby. Ms. Breeze helped Anova remove the tarp and bungee cords as Bezezelle removed the harness from around her waist.

Bezezelle followed along behind Ms. Breeze and Anova as they carried Anova’s fair entries inside the gym. Once inside, they took an immediate left and in a few short trots arrived at the back corner of the gym. Medium sized square ‘lots’ made of red duct tape were spaced evenly throughout the orange floor of the gym and assigned a number. A makeshift sign made of paper, permanent marker, a yardstick and a block of green foam indicated that this corner lot was Lot 37. If anypony looked close enough at the walls around the lot or even at the floor, they’d be able to see where it was replaced time and time again from the many fair entries of Anova’s that suffered from a Mana Core malfunction.

“You two know the drill. Set up your entry, do what you’ve gotta do and then head on to your homeroom classes,” Ms. Breeze instructed “your fourth period teachers will dismiss you when it’s time for the fair to begin.”

“Yes ma’am. Thanks for the helping hoof,” Anova said, wasting no time in getting her inventions presentation ready.

Ms. Breeze nodded her head in response before she turned and went back to her post outside by the doors. There wasn’t much in the way of help that Bezezelle could provide Anova, so she simply stood nearby and watched her best friend work her magic. Out of the corner of her eye, Bezezelle could see a familiar figure approaching them. Bezezelle let out an annoyed sigh as she braced for the insults that were about to come their way.

“Hey, baby horn! What kind of bombs did you bring to blow up part of the school this year?” The familiar figure heckled.

Anova paused what she was doing and let out a loud, irritated groan. She then continued with her setup preparations and tuned out the heckler. Bezezelle turned and looked at the cause of irritation; the school’s most popular colt, star buckball player and resident stereotypical bully. She honestly was unbothered by the things Wild Haze had to say about her, but the nasty things said about Anova made her blood boil. If she knew she could get away with it, Bezezelle would buck him right in his stupid face every chance she could. If she could guarantee her secret wouldn’t be compromised in any way, shape or form, Bezezelle would have used her changeling abilities to frame Wild in some way to get him into a heap of trouble.

“Hey, baby dick! Are you actually participating in the fair this year or is a baking soda and vinegar volcano still way over your head?” Bezezelle sneered as she placed herself between him and Anova.

“Was I talking to you, dumbass?” Wild Haze questioned angrily.

“No, but I was talking to you and you didn’t deny having a baby dick, so it looks like I’ll be telling everypony about it,” Bezezelle snapped “unless you’d like to kindly fuck off?”

“Oh, go choke on an apple, bitch. Calling your nerdy ass friend ‘baby horn’ is a factual statement,” Wild Haze snapped back “that thing’s so small, her mane completely hides it. It might as well not even be there.”

“Okay? And calling you ‘baby dick’ is a factual statement too,” Bezezelle snapped “your dick is so small and useless, Blossom can’t even reach the Big O, jackass. It might as well not be there.”

“Shut up about my dick, you bland cunt. You haven’t seen it and- for the record- it’s the biggest in the entire school,” Wild Haze sneered.

“I haven’t seen it, true, but Blossom talks an awful lot about it and how disappointed it makes her feel,” Bezezelle said snarkily.

“How do you know it’s the biggest, anyways? Been trading polaroids with the other colts in the school?” Anova chimed in “I’d say Blossom would be pissed to know you’ve been showing your nudes with anypony who isn’t her, but even she knows there isn’t much to look at.”

“I mean, we’re both a hundred percent okay with and accepting of colts being attracted to colts, so no hate there, but isn’t trading nudes with anypony other than your s.o. cheating?” Bezezelle questioned, her words laced with sarcasm.

“Oh, totally. A hundred percent cheating. Blossom’s gonna be sooo pissed,” Anova answered in an identical tone.

“You know what? I’m gonna-”

“Gonna what? Beat me up? Tch, good luck with that. Go bother somepony else who actually gives a shit, Haze,” Anova interrupted “at least what I lack in horn size, I make up for in intelligence. Unlike you.”

“And then some,” Bezezelle added “but if you’re looking for somepony to hand you your ass on a silver platter, I’m more than willing to help.”

“Tch, that’s real rich. You? Kick my ass? In your wildest dreams, asshat,” Wild Haze scoffed “I’ve got better things to do than waste my time talking to the two of you nerds.”

“Unfriendly reminder you walked over to us, so you’ve already wasted your time and ours,” Bezezelle snarked “but thanks for fucking off. Have fun disappointing your marefriend some more, loser.”

“Fuck you!” Wild Haze angrily exclaimed as he turned and stormed off.

“No thanks!” Anova and Bezezelle exclaimed in unison.

“He’s so intimidated by my smarts and accomplishments, but even he won’t admit it. He’s got to go and make a fool of himself just to prove he’s the best,” Anova scoffed “he’s worried I’ll outshine him.”

“You already do, Anova! You’re better than him in every aspect that matters in teenage society,” Bezezelle said encouragingly “for somepony considered a ‘nerd’, you’re pretty up there in terms of popularity. You’ve got more money than him that you earned yourself. You’re smarter, better looking, more likable and the list is just endless!”

“Hehehe, careful now. Don’t stroke my ego too much, I’m not ready to climax just yet,” Anova teased “save it for the presentations later.”

“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” Bezezelle laughed.

The gymnasium was now filled nearly to the brim with both students and faculty members. A roar of chatter filled the room and the excitement in the air was palpable. Anova and Bezezelle had taken their place at their assigned lot and now the former was pacing back and forth nervously. Although confident that her inventions would work, Anova couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous about her half of the presentation. Bezezelle felt nervous about her half as well, but tried to remain confident for the both of them. As they waited for the judges of this year’s fair to make their way to the back of the gym, Bezezelle mentally rehearsed her lines.

Prior to the start of their project, the two had agreed Anova would handle the majority of the work involved and Bezezelle would help present it and do most of the talking, even if she didn’t quite understand every bit of what she was presenting. As long as she remained confident, Bezezelle was sure the judges would believe she knew what she was presenting… or so she hoped. After what felt like a painstaking eternity, the judges- the mayor, the superintendent and the dean of the local community college- finally arrived at Lot 37 and were accompanied by Ms. Breeze, who introduced the duo and their project’s title.

“Hello, sirs and ma’ams. Thank you for taking the time out your busy schedules to be here today,” Bezezelle greeted “and thank you for taking the time to hear out our presentation.”

“As Ms. Breeze has already informed you, our entry for this year’s science fair are inventions I’ve named ‘Instantaneous Teleportation Pads’- or just ITPs for short,” Anova explained “the name is just a placeholder until I can think of something better to name it.”

“Well, as with all your inventions, they certainly look impressive and sound interesting, but what do they do? How does it work?” Mayor Solar Mark questioned.

“And what’s the science behind it? How will it benefit our society?” Superintendent Thunder Gust questioned.

Anova took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled it as she stepped aside, gesturing at her inventions with a hoof. Bezezelle knew that was her cue and quietly cleared her throat before gesturing to the pads herself.

“All excellent questions that we’re so glad you asked. The devices are powered by a newer version of Anova’s Mana Cores, which- as you already know- are made of raw magic condensed and stabilized into viable energy sources- or orbs, if you will,” Bezezelle explained “a stable Mana Core is impressive in and of itself, but the real gem of this project is a little something we’re calling the ‘Spell Core’. Without it, these pads are nothing more than sci-fi eye candy.”

“Similar to Mana Cores, the Spell Cores are orbs of magic that take any existing spell and condense it into an easy-to-use, stable repository that anypony can use, particularly those who are naturally unable to utilize magic!” Anova explained with great excitement “both the teleportation pads and Spell Cores are easy to use for anypony, but are aimed more for earth ponies, pegasi and any unicorn who hasn’t learned to teleport.”

“These Spell Cores for these pads use a specific core that we call the TeleCore- for obvious reasons- as it contains the magic of teleportation spells inside,” Bezezelle explained “based off their looks, it would be a more apt description to call them ‘teleportation tubes’ than ‘pads’, but the top and glass panels serve important purposes.”

“As I’m sure you can recall, my previous inventions used Mana Cores that- in the end- didn’t remain stable. While these newer versions of Mana Cores are perfectly stable, in the event of a malfunction the thick glass and blast-resistant top are there to contain the resulting explosion,” Anova explained “one side of the glass panels are attached to a sliding track that allow users to enter the pads. The top also serves as the housing for the TeleCores, which are easily identified by the red metallic circles. The blue circle you see at the bottom is the housing for the Mana Cores.”

“Additionally, when closed, the glass panels form a tight seal to help further contain any malfunctions. The computers- or terminals as we call them- you see attached to the stationary panels are an important feature that control the entirety of the pads’ functions,” Bezezelle explained.

She paused her explanation momentarily to trot over to the pad closest to her and turned the monitor on. The screen lit up, displaying a welcoming message and a list of available options in a bright green text.

“Before one can use the teleportation pads, they must use the terminal to select the ‘Power’ option in the menu to turn on the main power for the pads. While not in use, the pads essentially run on a low-power mode that only feeds power to the terminals,” Bezezelle explained “with the main power activated, however, users can now select their desired location from the ‘Locations’ option in the menu. Once a place is chosen, the terminal will present two options: ‘Proceed’ or ‘Abort’. Choosing the ‘Proceed’ option automatically opens the panel, while ‘Abort’ clears all selections and returns you to the main menu.”

“Additionally, once the main power for one pad is activated, a signal is sent out that automatically turns on the main power for the receiving pad,” Anova quickly added.

Anova trotted over to the pad closest to her and excitingly gestured to the attached terminal before turning its monitor on as well. She drew an imaginary circle around the pad with a hoof and then patted the top of the computer gently as she began to speak.

“Now, I’m sure your asking yourselves just how exactly the terminals are able to determine the location of the other pad. The answer is both simple and quite exciting,” Anova explained “think of Bezezelle’s pad as ‘Pad A’ and mine as ‘Pad B’. Both terminals are equipped with a ‘Geolocator’, which is just the fancy word I’m using in place of ‘GPS’. The Geolocators auto-detects the locations of both its home pad and the sister pad.”

“It’s a two-way system, kind of like walkie-talkies in a sense. The Geolocators send out signals that both pads pick up, which shows up in the ‘Location’ options. Pad A displays its location on the main menu but isn’t selectable while Pad B’s location is selectable in the ‘Locations’ options,” Bezezelle explained “since these two are the only ones in existence and they’re both here, the location options for these aren't all too impressive at the moment.”

Bezezelle paused her explanation once again to use the keyboard to turn on Pad A’s main power, then to select the location of Pad B from the appropriate options. She then selected the ‘Proceed’ option when prompted, which opened the moveable panel with an audible ‘swish’. Bezezelle then proudly entered the pad and faced the judges and Ms. Breeze. Just as they had explained, once Pad A had become visibly powered, the black rings now emitting a bluish light and an overall quiet electrical hum, Pad B powered up and did the same. Anova quickly joined Bezezelle inside the pad with an ear-to-ear excited grin on her face.

“Once inside, users will find a small, yellow and gray box with only a red button on it. This button signals for the doors to close or- if you’re now at the receiving pad- to open them,” Anova explained, barely containing her excitement “as soon as the doors are closed at the home pad, the TeleCore activates, reads the location signals from the computers on both pads and casts the spell to send the user to the target location.”

“It’s a process that is one hundred percent safe to use. We’ve tested it numerous times on various inanimate objects like toys, pencils and hammers as well as organic life like apples and small insects,” Bezezelle explained.

“But you haven’t tested it on actual ponies yet? It may be safe for apples, crickets and model cars, but how can you be sure it’s safe for pony use?” Mayor Mark questioned.

“No ponies have used these yet, but… Atom Bunny and I will provide a live demonstration to you right now to prove that it is- in fact- safe for usage by ponies!” Anova proudly answered “and now, behold as we get moved from Pad A to Pad B in a matter of seconds!”

By now, a large crowd of onlookers had gathered behind the judges and watched on in awe and minor disbelief at the pair’s bold claims. At the front of the crowd, Bezezelle could see Wild Haze standing next to his marefriend- Blossom Dance- with a look of mischievous satisfaction on his face. Before she had time to question it, Anova gently nudged her and gestured for Bezezelle to press the button. Bezezelle momentarily stared at Wild Haze before looking away as she pressed the button. With another ‘swish’, the panels closed and the inside of the tubes became bathed in a red hue from TeleCore above them.

The previously quiet electrical hum grew gradually louder with every passing second as the red light from TeleCore also grew. The electrical hum soon became an electrical screech that was unbearably loud and almost painful, causing everypony nearby to cover their ears instinctively. A look of horror spread on Bezezelle and Anova’s faces as they realized something was going horribly wrong with the process.

“This isn’t right! It shouldn’t be doing this! Everything was fine! Everything… Somepony must have tampered with the pads while we were in class!” Anova shouted over the electrical screeching “Open the door! Open the door now! Hurry! Hurry!”

Bezezelle frantically pressed the button, but was only met with an error noise as the screeching continued and grew ever louder. She pressed the button repeatedly in hopes that it would listen and release them from the tube. However, the only thing that happened as a result was multiple error noises being played back to back. To make matters worse, the tube was now visibly shaking and vibrating, like the whole thing was getting ready to blow at any given second without warning.

“It’s not working! It’s not working! Just teleport us out!” Bezezelle frantically shouted.

“I-I can’t! I… I don’t know how! I had my mother help me with that part!” Anova shouted, tears filling her eyes.

“We’ll be okay, right? No matter what happens?” Bezezelle questioned.

“I don’t know! I’m sorry! I don't know what will happen!” Anova answered “I’m sorry I asked you to get involved!”

“What? No! We’re in this together, even if the worst happens!” Bezezelle shouted.

“Somepony sabotaged my inventions, Bunny! Somepony had to, I know it! Everything was working fine before we got to school!” Anova shouted.

Her words didn’t reach Bezezelle’s ears, as the screeching had swallowed their sound, but Bezezelle was able to make out her words regardless. There was only one pony she knew that would be bold enough to do something as low as sabotage. Angrily, Bezezelle pointed in Wild Haze’s direction and shouted something the onlookers couldn’t quite make out. As the red light completely obscured the trapped mares in the tube, Bezezelle squeezed her eyes shut, reached out for Anova and pulled her best friend into a tight hug. She didn’t know what was going to happen to them, but made sure her last thoughts were of all the happy memories she shared with Anova.

The screeching reached its climax and- despite having their eyes closed- the pair could tell the red light shifted to a lighter- but equally bright- color. Bezezelle squeezed Anova tightly as it seemed the end was near. Abruptly, the screeching was momentarily replaced by an ear piercing ‘poof’-like noise and then even more abrupt, ear-ringing silence. In tandem with this, the bright light suddenly turned to total darkness. A frighteningly long time passed by during this silent darkness, leading Bezezelle to believe that the two of them had moved on to the afterlife. Another ear piercing ‘poof’ and sudden return of bright light, however, soon proved them both wrong about their fate.

Bezezelle opened her eyes and looked upwards on instinct to see an empty, red colored void that immediately shrunk and disappeared, revealing a vast blue sky littered with wispy white clouds. Her eyes widened with fear and her ears flattened against her head, but before she could make a single sound, Anova screamed and clinged even tighter to Bezezelle. Immediately, Bezezelle followed Anova’s fear-filled gaze to the ground below that was coming at them fast. As the wind whistled loudly in her ears, Bezezelle used a hoof to make Anova look at her.

“Do something quick before we become flatter than a crepe!” Bezezelle shouted over the wind “Anything is better than dying!”

“Wha- yeah! Yeah! Hold on, I’ll think of something!” Anova agreed in a panicky tone.

Anova looked around frantically as she tried to think of a way to prevent them from getting hurt. An idea suddenly came to her and immediately used her magic to cast telekinesis around them, which drastically slowed their fall enough that the pair didn’t die upon impact with the hot sand below. Much to their surprise, they suffered no major injuries that they could tell at the moment but did gain several painful bruises. Bezezelle released her iron grip on Anova and rolled onto her back with a pained groan. Anova hugged the sand and made a noise of relief, grateful to be on solid ground again.

With another groan, Bezezelle slowly stood up and looked around. The side that had made impact on the ground was incredibly sore and was borderline unbearable to Bezezelle. As she looked around, Bezezelle struggled to recognize their surroundings. Behind them was a tall, rocky mountain. In front was a seemingly endless existence of rock and sand. If she squinted hard enough, Bezezelle could barely make out what looked like a windmill off in the distance in front of them and what appeared to be a town roughly off to their left. Bezezelle gently nudged Anova with her back leg, which caused the latter to cease her praise of the ground and look up at her best friend.

“Are we in the San Palomino Desert?” Bezezelle asked as she looked down at Anova.

“I have no idea, Bezzy,” Anova replied as she stood up with a pained groan “but it sure seems like it, at least.”

“I think we may be in luck for a change of pace. I could be wrong, but I think I see a town over that way,” Bezezelle said as she gestured to their left.

“Hmm. Yeah, that looks town-ish to me,” Anova agreed “I guess that’s our only option at this point.”

“Okay, so here’s what we’ll do, Novie. We’ll travel to the town, if they’ve got a doctor of some kind, we’ll see if they can help ease the pain from our fall and then we’ll get directions back to Potter’s Fray,” Bezezelle said confidently “well, at the very least, we’ll get directions back to somewhere like Applewood or Las Pegasus.”

“I hope you’re right, Bezzy. I’m sorry this happened to us. I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” Anova said in a sad tone, her voice wavering as she tightly hugged Bezezelle.

“Hey, hey it’s okay, Novie. I’m not mad at you or anything of the sorts, I promise,” Bezezelle said reassuringly as she wrapped a front leg around Anova in a half hug.

“I’m so fucking scared right now, Bezzy. I… I just wanna go home,” Anova said, nearly choking on her words “I want my mom, my dad, even Jet! I… I don’t want to be here!”

“I-I know, I know. We’ll be home soon, okay? It’s okay if you’re scared, I am too, but we can’t cave to fear just yet,” Bezezelle said reassuringly “let’s… wait, d-do you hear that?”

It wasn’t Bezezelle's intention to scare Anova with that last question, but she could hear an odd skittering that she couldn’t quite pin to a source. Bezezelle pulled away from their embrace as she turned around to locate what she was hearing. She soon found her answer as she looked up at a small sandy path leading up part of the mountain. Five child-sized, lizard-like creatures with bluish-gray scales and big orange eyes were quickly advancing towards them on their hind legs, all the while letting out horrendous sounding snarling. There was no doubt in Bezezelle’s mind that these overgrown lizards intended on using her and Anova as hearty meals.

“R-Run! Run!” Bezezelle frantically shouted as she turned and began to gallop.

Anova let out another scream as she quickly followed after Bezezelle. As the pair galloped for their lives, the hungry creatures skittering after them were quickly closing the gap. One leapt forward and landed a successful bite on Bezezelle’s back right fetlock, scratching the skin around with its sharp little claws in the process. Bezezelle let out a loud noise of pain as she tried to run and shake off the attacking beast at the same time. Risking a similar injury, Anova slowed down and paused momentarily to buck the creature off Bezezelle’s leg.

Although successful in removing the pest and just barely avoiding an attack from one of its friends, the forceful removal caused the beast to rip some of Bezezelle’s skin and leave deeper wounds that instantly began oozing a green liquid. Anova frantically caught up to Bezezelle as they continued to flee. A third creature leapt at Anova, this time landing a successful swipe at her left back leg that quickly began bleeding, making Anova cry out in pain as she quickened her pace.

Using her magic, Anova quickly lifted a large rock they had just galloped past and tossed it in the lizard-creatures’ path. This quick thinking successfully slowed the beasts down momentarily, giving Bezezelle and Anova enough time to put a decent amount of distance between them. As they climbed a hill and approached what appeared to be a small windmill attached to a pump-like device, Bezezelle came to an abrupt halt as she panted heavily. Just ahead of them were more of those nasty, lizardy creatures around the pump.

Bezezelle looked at the pack of three ahead that hadn’t yet spotted them, then to the pack behind them and then to the surrounding desert as she quickly assessed the best course action. Quickly, Bezezelle redirected them down a hill and to what seemed like a path off to the right. As they continued to flee, the pair spotted more creatures off to their left which- to their luck and surprise- also didn’t seem to notice them. However, the pack that originally attacked the duo were still pursuing them and steadily gaining ground. As the town grew closer into view, a black-and-gray cattle dog suddenly appeared around a pile of rocks and flew past the duo.

The dog attacked the lizardy creatures, quickly killing two of them as the creatures turned their attention to the dog. Bezezelle and Anova paused to watch the battle between them, which caught the attention of one of the creatures who then leapt towards Bezezelle and landed a solid bite on her left back leg just below her flank. Immense, searing pain spread throughout her leg and flank as the creature's fangs sunk into her flesh. Bezezelle yelped loudly in pain and then flinched as a startling noise echoed in the air. Suddenly, the lizard attacking Bezezelle made a noise of pain as it let go and fell to the ground, writhing momentarily before coming unnervingly still.

Bezezelle and Anova looked upwards to the source of the sudden sound. Standing on the rocks above was a strange, bipedal creature the two had never seen before. Whatever it was, appeared to be female and had white skin, dark colored eyes and reddish hair that looked like it might have been thrown up into a short ponytail or messy bun. The bipedal wore clothing that appeared to be made of leather and wielded a weapon of which the two had never seen before. Whatever it might have been, this weapon was the source of the startling noise but thankfully put a swift end to the remaining monsters that had been pursuing them.

“Whew. We showed up at just the right time didn’t we, Cheyenne?” The creature asked, its voice further cementing that it was female in Bezezelle’s head.

The dog- who Bezezelle assumed was called Cheyenne- approached Bezezelle and Anova, sniffing rapidly in their direction. It barked loudly at them, which caused Anova to make a noise of fear and use Bezezelle to hide herself. The bipedal creature carefully jumped down and approached the duo with a kind smile on her face. Bezezelle took a few cautious steps away, gently pushing Anova alongside her in the process.

“Cheyenne, stay. Don’t worry, she won’t bite,” The creature said as she reached down and patted the dog’s head.

“Let’s get the two of you to Doc Mitchell. Gecko bites can get nasty real quick.”

Chances Are... We're Stuck Here

“When we get back home, I’m seriously going to murder Wild Haze. He’ll make a raisin look smooth by the time I’m finished.”

Anova let out an annoyed sigh as she rolled over in Bezezelle’s lap and wiggled around until she was comfortable again. The pair of best friends now found themselves in the ghost town of Goodsprings, a quiet place with only a hoof-ful of residents located in a desert they called the Mojave. In the two days they had been there, Bezezelle and Anova had learned quite a lot about the world that the malfunction of Anova’s invention brought them to. They had first arrived just outside what they were told was the Goodsprings Source, a place where the townsfolk were able to collect purified water. They had learned from the thing that had saved them that the lizardy creatures that had attacked them were called geckos and a common nuisance in the area.

As for the creature that saved them, she called herself a human and went by the name of Sunny Smiles. As for the weapon she had used to kill the geckos, Sunny called it a varmint rifle; a type of gun common in places like Goodsprings. Sunny had been kind enough to shed some light to Bezezelle and Anova on where their science fair mishap had landed them. They were no longer in Equestria, not even on Equus. Instead, they were on Earth, in the country of somewhere called the ‘United States of America’ and in the Mojave desert specifically.

Much to their dismay, Sunny Smiles wasn’t able to provide Bezezelle and Anova with much of a history lesson as they made their way to Goodsprings and up a small hill to the home of the town’s only doctor. Being in an alien world and a pair of intellectuals, they felt a desire to know as much as possible in order to get home- Anova more so than Bezezelle. However, Sunny was able to tell them a little bit about the strange world they found themselves in. Roughly two centuries ago, the world came to a fiery end when powerful nuclear bombs began raining from the sky and turned the world into a wasteland, an event they called the ‘Great War’. Miraculously, somehow humanity managed to survive and slowly rebuild over the course of those two centuries. Even in a place as ‘unforgiving’ as the Mojave, there were still ‘glimmers of hope’ as Sunny had put it.

“We’re still a long, long way from fully recovering and rebuilding the world like it was before the reset button was pressed,” Sunny had explained “here, you’ve just got to take it one day at a time and hope you’ll see tomorrow.”

After hearing a bit of what Equestria was like, Sunny had made it clear to them that the Mojave was nowhere near as nice and friendly of a place as their homeland had been. The people, creatures and everything else that called the Mojave home weren’t always friendly like the folks of Goodsprings, Sunny had said. The world was full of awful people and awful things, some by nature, some by nurture and some just didn’t understand the concept of good and evil. She left them with the wisdom of ‘always watch your backs and keep your guards up, even if you know someone won’t mean you any harm’ before she left them with Doc Mitchell.

Sunny had been plenty friendly with Bezezelle and Anova, but the good doctor’s gentle, caring nature made him more pleasant in Bezezelle’s eyes. He was an old soul with a kind, fairly wrinkled face and a white mustache that curtained his upper lip. Doc Mitchell was completely bald on the top of his head, but had just enough of his thin, white hair to cover the rest of it. He had on a red bandanna tied around his neck and wore a long sleeved, gray button up shirt that he had tucked into his brown overalls. His feet were covered by a pair of worn, brown boots and his hands were covered by a pair of equally worn, brown gloves.

He listened to their story of misfortune as he administered first aid to them. Although the sensation of being jabbed by a weird needle contraptions he called ‘stimpaks’ was uncomfortable, both young mares were in awe at it’s fast healing capabilities- Anova more so than Bezezelle. After bandaging the deeper wounds that weren’t immediately healed by the stimpaks, Doc Mitchell was kind enough to give them a little bit more information about the world and how it met its fiery doom. He added on to what Sunny had already told them by clarifying that the ‘Great War’ was fought primarily between the United States and another country by the name of ‘China’, something he learned as a child living in an underground shelter called ‘Vault 21’.

“The folks who know about how the war came about have a whole slew of different ideas on how the bombs fell that fateful day. Some say China striked first, some say it was the US,” Doc Mitchell had explained “but ultimately, who fired first has always been an unsolvable mystery. I reckon it’ll stay that way for a long time.”

Some humans were able to find shelter in these nuclear bunkers called vaults, which were built by a company by the name of Vault-Tec. Not everypony was quite so lucky, however, and many perished when the bombs dropped. Of the lucky few who did manage to survive the atomic fire, their bodies became disfigured by the resulting radiation and much of their outer flesh rotted off their bodies. Those people were referred to as ‘ghouls’ and quickly became stereotyped and banished from certain areas of the world because of the transformation. Some eventually had their brains rotted away over time by radiation and became known as ‘feral’ ghouls.

Both sound-minded and feral ghouls were effectively turned immortal against time, as the radiation drastically slowed their aging, but were still susceptible to the dangers of starvation, dehydration and death in general. This information particularly amazed Anova, who tried to picture ‘zombified’ humans in her head before Doc Mitchell briefly described the different dangers the radiation had produced and the ones they’d best steer clear of if they knew what was good for them. Bloatflies, geckos, radroaches, giant ants, radscorpions, giant mantises, mole rats, yao guais. Full of so many strange and unfamiliar animals, the list was almost endless. The descriptions he gave of some of the animals, like the yao guai, sounded too terrifying to be true.

Doc Mitchell had apologized after that, though the apology was mostly aimed towards Anova, who was visibly frightened by the lesson on wasteland creatures. With a chuckle, he had offered the couch in his living room to them and apologized once more; this time for not offering them the bed in the next room over. Although it didn’t happen often in their neck of the desert, he never could be exactly sure when a new case would walk through the door and need his assistance. Having to share a small couch with one another was, of course, hardly an issue for Bezezelle and Anova. After all, they had shared the same bed when Bezezelle had been first invited to live with Anova and her family.

“That’s lovely and all, Bezzy, but please go to sleep,” Anova said quietly“I’m upset with him too, but it can wait until we actually get home.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb your slumber, Novie. I’ve got too many thoughts swimming around in my head that I can’t sleep,” Bezezelle said apologetically.

“Mmm. Think about sleep, then,” Anova mumbled before drifting back to sleep.

“Right,” Bezezelle sighed quietly to herself.

It was now the end of their second day in the Mojave wasteland. Bezezelle and Anova had spent the day meeting the other residents of Goodsprings and keeping Doc Mitchell company. Despite how desperately they wanted to return home to Equestria as soon as they possibly could, they understood that they needed to take their time and be careful in their search, lest the hostile sands of the Mojave claim their lives. Bezezelle’s mind was far too occupied to even consider sleep, not that she was even sleepy in the first place. Slowly and carefully, Bezezelle slid herself up until she was sitting on the couch and Anova’s head rested on the cushions between her flanks.

Bezezelle carefully swung her leg over Anova as she quietly stood up and stepped away from the couch. Another sigh escaped her lips as she trotted over to the nearby trio of windows. Faded, worn chairs were placed on either side of a small wooden table beneath the middle and last window. Beneath the first was a bookshelf with only a handful of neatly organized books. Bezezelle took a seat in the chair closest to the bookshelf and peeked out into the surrounding desert through the boards that covered each of the windows.

A cold darkness stretched over the Mojave as the night marched, the moon perched high in the starry sky and watching vigilantly over the wasteland. Stars twinkled in the sky like glitter in the light and clouds slowly danced overhead. To be a land filled with as much terror and evil as she been lead to believe, Bezezelle couldn’t help but admire how beautiful the relatively peaceful nightscape was. Despite its beauty, a sadness panged at her heart. Was their moon and their sun raised daily by some magical deities like the sister princesses back home? Or was it a natural occurrence, left untouched by deity and human-kind alike?

Bezezelle’s silent pondering was interrupted by a commotion near the front door. Curious, Bezezelle rose from her seat and poked her head out into the hallway just in time to watch as Victor- a friendly Securitron robot with a cowcolt-themed personality that wandered the town- carefully handed Doc Mitchell the limp body of an unconscious man. From where she stood, she could see that nearly his entire face was caked in mostly dried blood and that he was struggling to breath normally. Bezezelle silently wandered forward and overheard Victor and Doc Mitchell’s conversation.

“Found him up at the ol’ bone orchard during my usual nightly stroll. Some bad eggs round those parts, up and shot him in the head and then buried him,” Victor explained in a surprisingly cheerful tone “couldn’t shake the feelin’ he might’ve been still kickin’, so I dug him right up and brought him straight here, Doc.”

“Thank you, Victor. I’ll see what I can do for him,” Doc Mitchell said with a small nod.

“My pleasure, partner. Happy trails!” Victor cheerfully exclaimed before turning and calmly strolling away from the house.

Doc Mitchell kicked the door shut with his foot and then quickly yet carefully brought the injured man into the clinic area. Bezezelle half turned and trotted over to the doorway that led from the living room directly into the clinic. It was a small room that Doc Mitchell had converted into a space for practicing medicine. In the far left corner was a bare mattress on a wooden bed frame with a privacy screen positioned at the foot end. On the floor between the two was a bag of medical supplies and next to the bed a small chair was placed nearby.

Along that same wall on the left corner closest to the doorway was a long desk with a broken computer, a chemistry and assortment of other items that Bezezelle had no clue what they were. On the floor next to it and between the desk and the privacy screen was a wooden crate with a broken gun sitting on top of it. In front of the desk was another privacy screen and on the other side of it was an operating table, a small rolling utility cart and an operating light affixed to the ceiling above. Across the room from the bare mattress was a gray, metallic gurney.

Against the short wall on the other side of the gurney was a small desk with a typewriter and other miscellaneous items scattered on top. Around the corner near the other doorway led to the hallway and in front was a set of heavily rusted metallic shelves that had seen better days. On these shelves was a couple of metal containers and a small assortment of items the good doctor had collected. On the rightmost wall and closest to Bezezelle was this coin operated machine that called itself a ‘Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester’. What it was and how it worked was a complete mystery to Bezezelle. Not even Doc Mitchell wasn’t entirely sure himself and had told Bezezelle and Anova that ‘not even Val’ knew herself. Whoever that was, they had no clue. Not even Doc, who was unsure why he had said it in the first place.

Bezezelle watched as Doc Mitchell laid the injured man on the operating table and pulled the utility cart closer. He noticed Bezezelle watching him and offered a friendly smile to her before walking away to grab the supplies he needed to help the man.

“If Victor saw this man was in trouble, why he didn’t help?” Bezezelle questioned.

“Couldn’t tell you. Victor is… well, a bit strange. He’s friendly enough, but it ain’t hard to see there might be more to him than even he’s aware of,” Doc Mitchell answered with a shrug.

“Is that man going to make it? I mean, I don’t know much about guns, but I don’t think it takes a scientist to figure out bullets plus brains probably equals death,” Bezezelle said, taking a seat in the doorway.

“I can’t say for certain, but with a bit of luck and the best of my skills, I’d say there’s a chance he’ll be just fine,” Doc Mitchell said as he walked back over to the injured man.

Doc Mitchell opened the bag of medical supplies and peered inside. A concerned frown appeared on his face as he pulled out what he needed. Bezezelle saw the frown and grew worried that something was wrong.

“Everything okay, Doc?” Bezezelle asked as she quickly stood up.

“Yes and no. Didn’t realize I had used up more of my supplies than I thought I had when I was patching up the two of you,” Doc Mitchell replied as set to work cleaning the man’s face “normally doesn’t take much to heal a gecko bite or scratch, but I guess with you two being from another world, your bodies needed a bit more than usual to properly heal.”

“Just a guess, though. I’m no scientist,” He added with a small shrug.

“So you don’t have enough supplies to help him?” Bezezelle asked.

“I have enough to get him through the night, but after that, well, there won’t be much I can do for him unless I can get more supplies,” Doc Mitchell replied “I just recently bought all the medical supplies Chet had in stock, too. Won’t be no caravans coming our way for a while yet either.”

“Unless you can get your hooves- er, hands- on what you need by tomorrow,” Bezezelle surmised.

“I hate to send you out into the wastes given the circumstances, but we don’t have the bodies to spare to go pokin’ through the ruins outside of town to find something,” Doc Mitchell said in an apologetic tone “but I reckon now’s as good a time as any to not only learn how to fend for yourselves out in the wasteland but how to scavenge for medicine, food, water, stuff like that.”

“I can’t argue with that. Well, I could, but I’d be in the wrong,” Bezezelle said with a small chuckle “and I guess we won’t find our way back home if we just sit around in Goodsprings either.”

“I won’t lie, though. I’m scared to venture outside of town,” Bezezelle added with a sigh.

“Don’t worry, I won’t have you two risk your necks without first knowing how to use a gun,” Doc Mitchell said reassuringly “Sunny Smiles can definitely help you with that. She might still be at the saloon, but with it being so close to closing time, she might not.”

“I hate to wake Anova up, but I know she’d kill me if I didn’t at least let her know where I was going,” Bezezelle said with a small sigh.

“By the time you finish talking to Anova, find Sunny, learn to use a gun and come back, I’ll have a list cooked up for you,” Doc Mitchell said in a grateful tone.

“Got to get this man stable first,” He added.

Bezezelle nodded in response as she turned around and went over to the couch. Anova was snoozing away peacefully with her back facing Bezezelle and curled up into a ball with her tail tucked between her legs. Bezezelle reached out a hoof and gently shook Anova until she stirred and sat up on the couch. Anova stretched as she loudly yawned and looked up at Bezezelle. She rubbed her eye sleepily and sniffed a bit.

“Is it morning already?” Anova questioned sleepily.

“No, it’s still nighttime, but I have a good reason to be waking you up,” Bezezelle answered apologetically “I just wanted to let you know where I was going, just in case you wake up and suddenly I’m nowhere to be found.”

“Huh? What- where are you going?” Anova asked, her head tilted in confusion.

“Doc Mitchell is trying to save a man who was just brought in by Victor. You know, that cowcolt robot we met earlier today? Anyways, Doc doesn’t have enough supplies and-”

“Wait, wait, wait. You’re just heading to Chet’s, right? Or the saloon?” Anova interrupted.

“Well, I’m heading to the Prospector Saloon to talk to Sunny Smiles if she’s there, but after that I’m heading back here to get the list and then out of the town to look for the supplies Doc needs,” Bezezelle explained “he bought all the medical supplies Chet had and-”

“I’m sorry, did you just say you were heading out on an adventure into the wasteland of an alien world and leaving me here by myself? I-I think I misheard you. I must still be half asleep or dreaming one,” Anova said in an angry, confused tone.

“Of course I’m going alone, Anova. I can’t let you get hurt or worse,” Bezezelle said with an annoyed sigh “I won’t be gone for long, I promise.”

“Like hell you’re going alone. What if something happens to you? If I lose you here of all places, then they might as well dig two graves! I’m not living in a world like this without you,” Anova said angrily.

“You’re not going to lose me, Novie, be reasonable. If it’s just me out there, I can easily get myself out of trouble. I can evade danger like a pro, you can’t,” Bezezelle argued in a matter-of-fact tone.

“And what exactly makes you a ‘pro’ at ‘evading danger’ and better than me at it, hmm?” Anova snapped angrily.

Instead of answering Anova’s question, Bezezelle squinted her eyes and gave her a look as if to ask if she was being serious. Wordlessly and in a quick flash of green magic, Bezezelle transformed into an identical copy of Anova and repeated the question in a mockful tone. As she spoke, she transformed herself into copies of Ms. Lila, Principal Breeze, Jet Force and Blossom Dance before turning back into her disguise.

“I can turn into almost literally anything, Anova. If I can get out of sight, I can turn into a rock or a bug and then they’ll lose track of me and fuck off,” Bezezelle said in an annoyed matter-of-fact-tone “but not you. They’d still find you and hurt you.”

“Oh, don’t be a smartass, bugbrain. I’m still half asleep,” Anova said snarkily as she rolled her eyes “but so what? You think the thought of almost getting hurt or potentially dying scares me?”

“I seem to recall the both of us running for our lives and you screaming in fear just yesterday,” Bezezelle said sarcastically “so, yes. I do think so.”

“Oh ha ha ha, funny as always. I was going to say that it doesn’t. You know, because of how many times I’ve almost blown myself to smithereens? But whatever,” Anova sneered.

“Seriously, this isn’t a big deal, Anova. I’ll be back before the morning even comes. Why are you acting like this?” Bezezelle said in an exasperated tone.

Anova looked at Bezezelle like she had grown three heads. She stood from the couch and brought her face inches away from Bezezelle’s.

“This isn’t a big deal?! Maybe it isn’t to you, Bezezelle, but it absolutely- and clearly- is for me! I get it, you were a lone bug for so long and given the circumstances and the stigma around changelings, you didn’t grow out of that mentality entirely as a precaution,” Anova began, angry tears welling up in her eyes “but me? Even though I had my family, I was alone. Always. Not by my choice either and I hated it! Daddy might have been an engineer, but not even he could quite understand my work, my passion.”

“When I met you that night at the park, you stood out ‘cause I hadn’t seen you around town and that gave me the chance- and the hope- that I could make a friend that didn’t know me for my hobby and the trouble it caused,” Anova continued as tears rolled down her cheeks “I’ve never told you this because I didn’t think I’d ever be in a position where I could lose you like this, but that night we met, I had plans to not be around for much longer when I got back home. I had taken a walk to think things through and had made the decision, but then I bumped into you, a total outsider.”

“Anova, I-”

“Shut up, I’m not finished. After we became friends, I always stuck to your side like glue because I hated being alone. I could deal with it just fine at school and during other circumstances because I knew you’d come back to me as soon as you could. It’s a big deal to me because you’re my everything, Bezzy. My best friend, my sister and platonic soulmate wrapped into one. Do you understand that? There isn’t a ‘me’ without ‘you’ anymore. If you die, I die and there’s no other way about it,” Anova continued as she gently but angrily shoved Bezezelle “you saw me for who I really was and not how everypony else- aside from my family- saw me. Finding out you were a changeling after hearing about the fiasco in Canterlot didn’t scare me or sway how I felt about you. Even if you were disguising your physical form, I knew you for who you really were on the inside, for what really mattered.”

“My point is, Bezzy, is that I need you. I’d rather die out there at your side then sit here wondering if you’ll come back to me. Promising you’ll ‘be back by morning’ doesn’t mean shit in a place like this. Let me… No, I am coming with you and that’s that,” Anova concluded.

Bezezelle stared at Anova- completely speechless- as she wiped the tears from her eyes and backed away. Bezezelle understood how Anova felt and everything she had said to her. Truth was, Bezezelle felt almost the same. The main difference was that Bezezelle had already partly- but not entirely- accepted losing Anova, her family and everypony else she cared for. She woke up every morning feeling like it might happen and made her feel like she was trotting on eggshells. She was prepared to be alone again if something happened and her secret was revealed.

Anova sniffled a bit as she sat back down on the couch and looked down at the floor, her ears drooping back in what Bezezelle assumed was sadness. She wasn’t quite sure what to say to her that hadn’t already been said by Anova and she was sure Doc- who undoubtedly overheard the exchange- probably preferred if they kicked their mission in gear. Bezezelle sighed loudly as she looked in the direction of the clinic. Even though Bezezelle felt she always needed Anova just as much as Anova needed her, Bezezelle couldn’t bear the thought of more harm coming to Anova. In fact, Bezezelle would accept dying if it meant that Anova would live on and if it were to actually occur during their time in the Mojave, Bezezelle would want Anova to keep going until she made it back to Equestria.

Bezezelle looked back at Anova, who was still staring at the ground. Wordlessly, Bezezelle trotted over to the doorway in the living room that led out into the hallway. She looked back to see Anova now looking at her with a look on her face that told Bezezelle that Anova was thinking she was leaving her behind anyways.

“Well? Are you coming or are you just going to sit there looking at me like that?” Bezezelle questioned, raising her eyebrows.

The look on Anova’s face immediately turned into one of relieved excitement as she jumped up from the couch and quickly trotted over. Anova grinned at Bezezelle, who chuckled at her quick shift in mood.

“Chances are, we’ll be stuck here for a long while. In the meantime, let’s do our part, Anova. Starting with helping Doc Mitchell,” Bezezelle said confidently “I don’t know how long we’ll be here or how much of an impact two ponies like us can make, but let’s leave this world a better place than we found it. Well, try to anyway.”

“How much of an impact can a changeling and a unicorn make? Well, let’s walk out the door and find out, Bezzy.”

Ain't No Black Mountain High Enough

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!

The sound of gunfire briefly echoed in the quiet desert night. Bezezelle sharply exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding while she fought off the now dead gecko. She and Anova were now a good distance outside of Goodsprings and on their way to the town of Primm, the first stop in their journey to Black Mountain Medical Center. Before leaving Goodsprings, the duo were given a lesson on self defense by Sunny Smiles, who also gifted the two with their very own varmint rifles with straps along with two boxes of ammo each. She also prepared for them a small ‘survival kit’- a leather bag- consisting of four purified bottles of water, three tins of something called ‘Cram’, a handful of ‘buffalo gourd seeds’, two gecko steaks, a box of ‘Dandy Boy Apples’ and a bag of something she called ‘healing powder’.

The owner of the Prospector Saloon- a kind woman named Trudy- had also gifted them with an old, beat up satchel backpack after Anova had kindly fixed her busted radio. Bezezelle currently had the backpack secured around her waist. After a brief chat with Trudy, the duo had returned to Doc Mitchell who handed them the list of needed supplies and thanked them for risking themselves to help a stranger.

“Here’s a little something to help you find your way in the Mojave. It’s called a Pip-Boy 3000, a must-have gadget all vault dwellers like myself wore,” Doc Mitchell had said “I cut the glove to better fit one of you since, well, you don’t exactly have hands. It’s a small, wrist-mounted computer with a map, radio, flashlight and Geiger counter built into it.”

He bestowed to them exactly that; a small computer-like device with a small screen and an assortment of interesting buttons. Below the screen were three orange-red colored lights labeled ‘Stats’, ‘Items’ and ‘Data’. To the left of the screen was a vertical wheel- of which Bezezelle had no clue of what its purpose was- and just below that was a twistable knob with a pointed indicator. Above both was a circle that displayed a gauge of some kind with a needle that pointed near the zero end of it, which Bezezelle assumed was the Geiger counter; although she had no idea what a 'Geiger counter' was or what it did exactly.

Anova happily accepted it, slipped both the modified glove and Pip-Boy onto her left foreleg and played around with it as Doc Mitchell informed Bezezelle of a location he heard in passing that might have the medical supplies he needed: Black Mountain Medical Center. The safest and most likely easiest way to reach the medical center- he informed- was to follow the I-15 highway to a town called Primm and then to a place called Nipton. From Nipton, they were to continue following the highway until they reached the town of Novac, from which the pair should easily be able to find the Black Mountain Medical Center.

The highway to Primm was mostly safe, aside from the small geckos that appeared seemingly out of nowhere as they traveled, like the one Bezezelle had just put down with her varmint rifle. Bezezelle had to shapeshift into a unicorn version of her disguise in order to properly carry and use the weapon. Even as a unicorn and despite the lesson from Sunny, her aim was somewhat poor as she missed three of the four shots she fired to kill the gecko. Anova’s aim was just as bad, having missed all of the shots she fired at the previous gecko. This had Bezezelle a bit worried for their safety, but she was sure that- with time- they’d both master their varmint rifles and then some. That was, at least, if this world didn’t gobble them up like hungry parasprites before then.

As they continued further down the highway, the two passed under a structure with green, beat up signs that indicated the directions of Primm, Nipton and some other location called ‘Los Angeles’. On the side of the road was a similar structure that was partly collapsed and broken. Whatever signs it had previously displayed were long gone and nowhere to be seen. Bezezelle could see Primm off in the distance to her left. The town was partly surrounded by an ancient rollercoaster attraction that seemed miraculously intact from what she could see.

Bezezelle picked up her pace as they came closer to the town. Even in the night sky, she could still clearly see the big buffalo adorning the top of one of the buildings inside the town. Bezezelle stopped and anxiously half readied her rifle as a man dressed up in military clothing approached them, unsure if he was a friend or a foe. Anova copied Bezezelle and stepped a bit closer to her.

“Hey, just where in the hell do you think the two of you are heading? Primm is off limits,” The man said as he jogged closer to them.

The man stood a good six feet or so away from Bezezelle and Anova. Bezezelle could see a rifle of some kind holstered on his back. She assumed he was friendly, as he didn’t draw his weapon as he stood there. He didn’t seem surprised to see a couple of ponies like themselves, let alone two who were traveling along the highway in the middle of the night.

“We’re just trying to reach Black Mountain Medical Center. We were told to go this way, that it was the safest route,” Bezezelle explained to the man.

“We were told to pass through Primm first. Is there something wrong with Primm?” Anova said as she looked over at the town.

“Safest way, huh? I’m guessing you’re trying to get to Novac then. Second safest place up near Black Mountain last I heard,” The man said as he folded his arms across his chest “as for Primm, well, some convicts from the prison just up the road have overrun the town.”

“How much longer until Primm is safe?” Bezezelle questioned “we might need to come back here at some point.”

“Couldn’t tell you. Primm doesn’t fall under our jurisdiction, but even if it did, we’re not in good enough shape to help them,” The man answered “we’d love to help them, but they’re on their own for now. If they’re not all dead already, that is.”

“What? Why can’t you help them, regardless of if they’re ‘in your jurisdiction’ or not?” Bezezelle questioned.

“And who’s ‘we’? Are you a part of some kind of military?” Anova asked.

“What? Are you new around here or something? You’ve never seen or heard of the NCR before?” The man countered, partly offended and partly surprised.

“You could say we’re new around here,” Bezezelle answered “and no, we haven’t.”

“Hmph. That’s a first. I’m a soldier, part of the New California Republic army,” The man said with a small scoff “the NCR is a nation entirely dedicated to both the values of democracy as well as the rule of law. Someday, we’ll have the whole of the United States shining great again.”

“Well, the whole of the west coast, anyways,” He added with a shrug.

“That sounds pretty admirable, mister. We’ll just go around Primm for now,” Anova said with a smile “but why can’t you help Primm, even if they were in your ‘jurisdiction’?”

“Well, for starters, we just don’t have the equipment to take them all out,” The man explained “and let’s say we did have that equipment, then our problem is not enough helping hands. We want to help, don’t get me wrong, but we just can’t right now.”

“But if you’re up to playing hero, well, I can’t really stop you if you wanted to head into Primm anyways,” He added.

“We don’t have the time- or skill- to help Primm right now ourselves. Like my friend said just a minute ago, we’ll just avoid the town for now,” Bezezelle said with a sigh “are we good to go now?”

“Honestly, the two of you would be safer just turning around and going back to wherever you came from,” The man said as he gestured behind him with a thumb “we’ve been having trouble with two tribes of raiders in the area in addition to the convicts in Primm.”

“What are raiders?” Anova asked.

The man sighed audibly, like he was growing annoyed by their lack of knowledge of the ongoings in the Mojave wasteland.

“Are you two fresh out of a vault or something? Raiders are scum of the earth, humans with absolutely no concept of good or morals,” The man explained “they do whatever they want, whenever they want and they’ll take whatever they want, no matter the cost. Junkies and murderers, to put it simply.”

“I’m sure we can handle them. If anything, we could easily outrun them,” Bezezelle said confidently “we can’t turn back now. The two of us have a life to save.”

“If you say so. Couldn’t stop you even if I wanted to, but, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” The man said with another shrug “I’d stick to the west side of the overpass if you don’t want a bullet in you.”

With that, the man walked away and returned to his post near an ancient, busted up vehicle. Bezezelle and Anova looked at each other, both unsure if they’d be able to accomplish their mission after all. Bezezelle tried to seem confident and tough while conversing with the NCR soldier, but deep down she was absolutely terrified. She thought geckos were the worst they had encountered so far, but these raiders the man mentioned sounded like they’d be worse than any gecko they’d put a bullet into thus far.

“We can do this, don’t worry,” Bezezelle said reassuringly, more to herself than to Anova.

“I hope so,” Anova said as she stared at the man “but did you notice something about him, Bezzy?”

“Hmm? Like what?” Bezezelle questioned.

“He didn’t seem shocked to see ponies in a world filled with humans,” Anova answered, looking at Bezezelle.

“Oh, yeah, I did notice that. I wonder; are there more ponies like us in the Mojave?” Bezezelle said as she looked back at the vast desert behind them.

“It sure would be surprising, but if we ended up here after a magical mishap, who’s to say it didn’t happen to others?” Anova said with a small shrug.

“Well, if there are, I’m sure we’ll come across them in our travels,” Bezezelle said cheerfully “but let’s get going now. We can’t waste too much time chatting with everypony we meet.”

“Lead on then, Bezzy. We’ll get there just fine with you in charge,” Anova said with a small grin.

After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality roughly two and a half hours, Bezezelle and Anova finally reached Black Mountain Medical Center. The journey there had been a bit jarring due to the amount of fighting they had to endure along the way. Much like with Primm, the duo had to avoid the town of Nipton altogether as they trotted along the highway. They were unsure of what the cause of the billows of black smoke that rose up into the air were, but deep in their guts they knew it was best if they didn’t find out. Along the way from Nipton, they encountered a bit of trouble. More geckos and giant ants were the main dangers they had run into, but Bezezelle and Anova did encounter what they assumed were a small number of the raiders the NCR soldier had mentioned.

It was a trio of humans- two men, one woman- dressed in armor made from what look like scraps of metal, leather and cloth. The woman and one of the men were armed with a pool cue and a shovel. They had rushed at Bezezelle and Anova while the other man shot at them with a one-handed gun they’d never seen before. The two rushing towards them were easy enough to defeat. Several bullets to their heads and the two dropped to the ground. Killing them made both mares feel sick to their stomachs. Watching their heads nearly split open and their brain matter and blood splatter everywhere nearly made them hurl.

Bezezelle felt incredibly awful inside as the two perished in front of her eyes, but she understood deep down that it was either their lives or her and Anova’s… and that it had to be done. Using some ruined house that was nothing but two partially broken walls as cover, Bezezelle drew the last raider’s attention while Anova used her magic to trip the man and snatch his gun from his hands. Before he had been able to stand back up and grab his weapon, together both mares put him down for good. After taking the gun for herself and against what felt like her better judgment, Anova searched his body for the ammunition that gun needed.

Bezezelle felt just as wrong doing so, but she followed her best friend’s lead and searched the bodies of the other two raiders. There wasn’t much on them aside from a container of what looked like pre-war chips, a stimpak and a couple of questionable items that neither mare was sure of what it had been. Before they had continued on their way, Bezezelle took the bloodied shovel for herself, which prompted Anova to pick up the tainted pool cue from the ground. With their hearts pounding in their stomachs, Bezezelle and Anova quickly galloped from the area and back to the highway.

Bezezelle flopped onto her haunches with a loud, exasperated sigh as she stared at the ruined remains of the medical center. Much of the medical center was buried beneath what seemed like a mountain’s worth of sand and rock. The only thing visible from the mounds of sand was the half-buried entrance sign to the hospital and the top right corner of the hospital’s third story. The visible windows were completely busted and half filled with sand and rock. A ripped and severely bent hospital bed jutted from one of the middle windows and swayed in the night breeze. What was left and visible from the rest of the hospital's exterior was partly cracked and broken off in some places.

“This place is all but completely buried! How in the hell are we supposed to find anything here, much less get inside?!” Anova exclaimed in frustration.

“Maybe there’s a way in through one of those windows. There’s got to be something here, Novie,” Bezezelle said, trying her best to sound reassuring.

“I hope so. I really, really hope so because otherwise, we’d have come all this way for nothing,” Anova said with a sigh.

“Here, hold these for me. I’ll fly up and see if there's a way in somewhere,” Bezezelle said as she handed her rifle and shovel to Anova.

Anova held onto them with her magic as she watched Bezezelle transform back into her original changeling form and fluttered up into the air. Bezezelle quietly buzzed over to the row of busted windows and looked for a potential way inside. The only room whose interior door wasn’t blocked by sand, rock and other bits of broken rubble was the window with the broken hospital bed sticking out of it. Bezezelle carefully entered the room and landed on the old tile flooring. Carefully avoiding the shards of broken glass still attached to the window frame, Bezezelle pushed and shoved the hospital bed out of the window. It landed on the sand below with an audible thump and metallic clang.

“You okay?” Bezezelle called out as she looked down at the ground below.

“I was not flattened by a hospital bed, so yeah! I’m okay!” Anova called back “how am I going to get up there?”

“Hold on, let me think for a moment! Keep an eye out, okay?” Bezezelle shouted.

Bezezelle rubbed her chin as she thought of the best way to get Anova up there with her. Carefully, she climbed onto the windowsill and stood at the edge. She turned around and carefully hung off the ledge of the windowsill. Anova watched nervously from below as Bezezelle let go and quickly transformed into a long, metallic ladder. Anova exhaled sharply as she watched Bezezelle’s ladder form smack against the side of the medical center. Using her magic to hold her in place, Anova trotted over and carefully climbed Bezezelle. Once inside the room, Anova carefully pulled Bezezelle inside and gently laid her on the floor.

“Your ability to shapeshift never ceases to amaze me. What’s it like being a ladder?” Anova said with a small chuckle.

Bezezelle transformed back into her unicorn disguise and stood up as she rubbed the top of her head. There was a pained look on her face as she smiled at Anova.

“It’s all fine and dandy until your head gets stepped on. I rate the experience two stars out of five,” Bezezelle said with a chuckle.

“It might have been less painful to have picked me up and flew me up here, you know,” Anova said helpfully as she patted Bezezelle’s shoulder.

“I’m tired. That possibility didn’t cross my noggin’,” Bezezelle said as she playfully knocked on her head.

“This place is already giving me the creeps. I hope what we need is here,” Anova said with a shudder as she looked around the room.

“This place might be buried under a thousand tons of sand, but we might not be entirely alone here. Stay on guard,” Bezezelle warned “how bright is that Pip-Boy’s flashlight? I imagine it’s pitch black beyond that door.”

“One sec,” Anova said as she lifted her foreleg.

Anova fiddled with the Pip-Boy until it made a click noise and a small portion of the room became bathed in a dim, yellow light. Anova was visibly disappointed by the Pip-Boy’s flashlight. Sure, it did its job for what it was worth, but the light’s dim radius would be less than helpful for both mares, even if Bezezelle stood directly next to her. Anova fiddled with the Pip-Boy again until the flashlight clicked off. Anova returned Bezezelle’s rifle and shovel to her as she used her magic to cast an illumination spell that lit up the room immensely better.

“There we go, that’s much better. If Doc lets me keep this, I’m going to have to tinker with it to make that flashlight better,” Anova said with a relieved sigh.

“Let’s get moving. The sooner we leave the better,” Bezezelle said with a confident smile.

Anova nodded her head in response as she followed after Bezezelle, who used her magic to move a pile of rocks blocking the door out of their way. Bezezelle opened the door- which creaked a bit- and creeped quietly out into the hallway. Until Anova stepped out into the hallway and stood behind her, the entirety of the hallway had been pitch black. The darkness and eerie silence of the medical center made Bezezelle feel uneasy. The ceiling above bulged down and leaked small streams of sand. Bits of wiring and broken fluorescent light fixtures hung from various places on the ceiling. Sand, rubble and bits of various broken medical equipment littered the cold, tiled floor. The hallway quickly came to a dead end to their right, which meant they would need to proceed to the left in order to find anything.

Bezezelle felt unsure of where to start looking for the medical supplies they needed, even if this human hospital didn’t look too much different from the hospitals back in Equestria. She pulled out the list Doc Mitchell had given to her and looked over it once again. She and Anova needed to find six more stimpaks in addition to three packs of blood and four syringes of something called Med-X. This list also requested two bottles of vodka, but Bezezelle was sure that was something they could obtain from Trudy when they returned back to Goodsprings.

The duo carefully made their way further down the dark, creepy hallway. Nearly all the doors they came across were either locked or internally blocked by rubble. As they rounded the corner to their right, they came across a small nurse’s station. The desks were littered with debris and scattered medical documents. On each desk was a non-functioning terminal whose contents would forever be unknown. Bezezelle’s stomach churned as she ventured behind the station. Skeletons wearing decayed nursing uniforms laid slumped in the worn, pink rolling chairs and sprawled out on the floor. Bezezelle and Anova carefully stepped over their bodies as they searched for what they needed.

At the back of the station, Bezezelle found a first aid box that looked as if it had been ripped off the wall and tossed onto the floor. She carefully picked up the green box with white cross markings and examined its contents. Inside were two more stimpaks and a bottle of purified water. Bezezelle removed the contents of the first aid box and slipped them into her satchel before looking around for more boxes. Finding none, Bezezelle and Anova exited the nurse’s station and continued straight down the hallway. Much of the remainder of the third floor was unexplorable due to collapsed parts of the roof and mounds of rock and rubble.

Down the hall from the nurse’s station, around the right-hand corner and through a set of double doors, the duo came across a set of elevators and the entrance to the hospital’s stairwell. Both sets of outer elevator doors buckled outward while the inner doors remained gaped open, revealing the broken interior of the cabs. Between the lack of power to the building and the elevators being busted, this left the stairwell as the only means of getting to the lower floors. A quick exploration of this wing of the hospital yielded in them finding another stimpak, one syringe of Med-X and more purified water, which the duo quickly gulped down.

The duo returned to the door leading to the stairwell and pressed onward in their quest for medical supplies. As they carefully made their way down the partially broken flight of stairs leading to the second floor, a loud and frightening growl echoed around them. Both mares instantly froze in fear as they listened to the sounds of footsteps quickly running up the stairs. From the darkness below, what looked like a zombified human wearing a torn hospital gown launched itself towards Bezezelle and Anova. Bezezelle yelped in fear as she swung her shovel blindly, luckily catching the metallic head right in the attacking monster’s jaw.

It growled ‘die!’ in a hoarse, low voice and swiped in Bezezelle’s direction as Anova used her magic to knock the creature down. Bezezelle used her own magic to tug the shovel out of the creature’s jaw and swing the shovel’s head into its meaty neck before it could get back up. It growled again as Bezezelle put as much pressure onto the shovel as she could until she successfully decapitated the creature. The creature’s head tumbled down the stairs along with its body. Bezezelle was thankful she hadn’t needed to use the bathroom as she was sure she would’ve pissed herself when that thing attacked them.

“Holy shit! Just what in the hell was that thing?!” Bezezelle questioned in a whispery-yell.

“Didn’t Doc Mitchell say something about those things? Humans that looked and acted like zombies? Feral… Oh! Feral ghouls!” Anova answered in a similar tone.

“Here I thought a hospital would be a relatively safe place. Not counting the fact this place looks like it could collapse at any moment,” Bezezelle whispered with a sharp sigh.

“Looks like we’ll have to be super sneaky from here on out,” Anova whispered “I mean, not that we were stomping around making a ruckus to begin with.”

“I think we’ll have to holster our rifles and stick to our shovel and pool cue,” Bezezelle whispered as she holstered her rifle “if we attracted that ghoul’s attention just by walking around, I can only imagine we’d attract the whole hospital if we fired our rifles.”

“Yeah, good call,” Anova agreed.

With their rifles now hung around their necks and hanging next to their sides, Bezezelle and Anova cautiously made their way down the remaining stairs leading to the second floor. However, they soon discovered the second floor was inaccessible from where they stood as the the other side of the door was blocked by heavy rubble and sand. Between the two of them, Bezezelle was sure they probably could have easily removed the debris blocking the door and entered the second floor, but something in her gut told her to leave it be and move onwards. Bezezelle gestured for Anova to follow her as she followed the stairs down to the first floor.

Bezezelle slowly and gently pushed open the door leading to the first floor of the medical center. Despite how slow and gentle she was with opening it, the door creaked loudly as it opened fully. Bezezelle hesitated and listened as carefully as she could before she proceeded into the first floor hallway. The air down here was suffocating, humid and probably filled with particles not good for the duo’s health. Bezezelle felt it was best to not linger on this floor for long and proceeded down the right end of the hallway. On the right side of the hallway, Bezezelle came across a door labeled ‘utility’. She peered inside and could see another first aid box on the back wall of the utility closet.

Much to her surprise, the utility closet was left unlocked and the door opened quietly and with ease. Inside were various centuries old cleaning supplies, mops, brooms and the single skeletal remains of a long-dead janitor. Stepping around the skeleton, Bezezelle and Anova entered the closet. Bezezelle gave Anova the honor of searching through the first aid box. Inside, Anova found two of the three blood packs they needed along with another syringe of Med-X and a stimpak. Anova wasn’t a doctor by any means, but she was certain packs of blood belonged somewhere refrigerated and not kept in the first aid box of a utility closet. ‘Those pre-war humans sure were weird’, Anova thought as she slipped her findings into Bezezelle’s satchel.

Bezezelle and Anova quietly crept back into the hallway and continued onward in their search. Further down the hall, they came across a set of restrooms on the left hand side of the hall. Bezezelle was certain the bathrooms likely had first aid boxes inside them and quietly approached the bathroom door labeled ‘Women’. After rounding a short hallway, Bezezelle and Anova immediately froze in place. Two feral ghouls stood on the other side of the room with their backs turned to the duo. Much to their surprise, the ghouls didn’t seem to notice them. Bezezelle scanned the room for a first aid box and then internally screamed in frustration.

Her hunch about the first aid boxes being inside the bathrooms had been correct, however, the first aid box inside the women’s restroom was attached to the wall the ghouls were facing. A fight with these ghouls was inevitable. If they wanted the contents of the first aid box, the feral ghouls needed to be put down. Bezezelle readied her shovel and gestured for Anova to follow her lead. On Bezezelle’s signal, the duo quickly rushed at the unsuspecting ghouls and knocked them down with their respective weapons. Bezezelle quickly decapitated the ghoul she had attacked while Anova jabbed her pool cue through the remaining ghoul’s skull.

To ensure it’s demise, Bezezelle decapitated that ghoul as well. With a sigh of relief, Bezezelle went over to the first aid box and opened it. The only thing inside this particular first aid box was a singular stimpak. While it was one stimpak closer to their end goal, Bezezelle couldn’t help but feel the encounter with these ghouls had been unnecessary and that they had wasted their time.

“Woah, check this out,” Anova said in a half-whisper, drawing Bezezelle’s attention.

Inside the last and largest stall was a skeleton in doctor’s clothing along with a duffle bag and what appeared to be a note. Anova had already taken the duffle bag and opened it up by the time Bezezelle had walked over. Inside the duffle bag had been five stimpaks, three syringes of Med-X, two tins of something labeled ‘Mentats’, two bottles of something labeled ‘Day Tripper’ and two bottles of something labeled ‘Buffout’.

“What’s all this other stuff? I wonder if they were the recipient or the dealer,” Bezezelle said, also in a half-whisper.

“Looks like they left a note… or were given one. Let’s see here…” Anova trailed off as she picked up the note and read it.

“What does it say?” Bezezelle questioned.

“Wow, how shameful! This person was going to leave these here in the ceiling tile for someone else to find later,” Anova answered “they stole most of this stuff from the hospital and the rest was from their ‘personal collection’ apparently.”

“Looks like the bombs must’ve fell before they could finish stashing it away,” Bezezelle said with a small roll of her eyes “well, this other stuff might be useful. Let’s take the whole duffle bag with us.”

“Aye, aye captain,” Anova said as she slipped the strap of the duffle bag around her neck.

Bezezelle and Anova quietly exited the women’s restroom and moved onto the men’s. Much to their relief, the men’s room was feral-free and contained another stimpak, but nothing else of value was found. The duo remained on guard as they moved on and continued further down the hallway until they reached another dead end blocked by rubble. Bezezelle and Anova grimaced at the sight of dozens of decayed skeletons poking up through various places in the blockage. It looked as if these poor people had been crushed as the floor above collapsed during a crowded, mad dash to escape as the bombs rained from the sky.

Forced to turn around, the duo doubled back to the stairwell door and proceeded to make their way down the previously unexplored, darkened route. Ancient wheelchairs littered part of the hallway, most of which were turned over on their sides. A few of them even had their owners’ skeletal remains slumped on the floor next to them. Bezezelle and Anova couldn’t help but feel bad for all the souls who had lost their lives in the medical center. The only tombstone and burial they would get would be the medical center and it’s decaying walls as the Mojave sands slowly swallowed it whole.

As they rounded yet another right-hand corner, Bezezelle and Anova found themselves in the medical center’s lobby and front desk area. The inner set of the center’s exit-entrance doors were busted out of their frame and laid broken on the floor. They were partially covered by the mountain of sand the seeped in from the outside, which completely swallowed and obscured the outer set of doors. The lobby area was nothing special, just rows of chairs with torn, stained cushions and the skeletal remains of those who had been waiting there before the bombs fell.

Bezezelle trotted around the front desk area with Anova close in tow. The skeletons of long-dead nurses laid curled on the floor and partly underneath the long, crescent-shaped desk. Terminals sat busted and cracked throughout the top of the desk, which was also covered in an assortment of more medical-related documents. On the wall behind this area was a doorway leading into what looked like a small office. The wooden door attached to this doorway hung from part of the top hinge and looked as if it could fall at any given moment. Bezezelle and Anova carefully and quietly squeezed past the door and into the small office.

A small fluttering noise followed with hiss made the duo flinch and tense up as they looked around for danger. Anova yelped loudly when she felt a sharp, sudden pain in her rear end. She could feel something wet slowly oozing from where she had felt the pain, which led her to believe she was now bleeding. Bezezelle made a mixed noise of fear and surprise as she laid eyes on the surprise attacker. Anova whipped around quickly- her pool cue readied- as she looked around for what had hurt her. Another hiss and small flutter drew her attention downwards. A giant, mutated cockroach leapt forward in an attempt to take another bite out of her body.

In unplanned unison, Bezezelle and Anova smacked the disgusting insect until it stopped moving and laid in a puddle of gross, roachy bodily fluids. Using her magic, Bezezelle picked up the massive roach and tossed its body out of sight, nearly gagging as she did. She might’ve been a bug of sorts herself, but certain insects- like cockroaches, crickets and mayflies- severely grossed as well as creeped her out. Bezezelle couldn’t help but feel a bit baffled by the giant roach’s decision to target Anova instead of herself, as Anova had been standing in front of and off to the right of her. The now-dead roach had to go around Bezezelle in order to get Anova in the first place. Maybe being a bug pony granted her some kind of mutated insect immunity? Bezezelle had no clue if it was true and wasn’t particularly keen on testing that theory either.

“Are you okay, Novie?” Bezezelle asked in a half-whisper.

“For the most part. I’m bleeding a little, but I’ll be fine,” Anova replied in a similar tone.

“First feral ghouls, now- what did Doc call them?- radroaches? I’m hating this place more and more with every passing minute,” Bezezelle said with an exasperated sigh.

“It’s okay, Bezzy. There can’t be much more left to explore,” Anova said reassuringly “we just need one more blood pack and then we can haul ass back to Goodsprings.”

“Let’s start with this office. Doesn’t look like there’s anything worth taking,” Bezezelle said as she trotted towards a nearby desk “well, except for maybe this.”

Sitting on the desk was a remarkably decently preserved weekly issue of a magazine titled ‘Today’s Physician’. Bezezelle picked it up and slipped it into her bag, hoping it would prove useful if she managed to find the time to read it. After taking the magazine, the duo searched the remainder of the office. As expected, they found nothing else of value and moved on through the doorway opposite of where they had first entered. The door belonging to this doorway had been busted completely off its hinges and laid broken nearly in half on the cold, dirty tiles a few feet away. This new hallway split into a curved capital t-shape.

The top of this t-curve was to their left, one end presumably leading back to the lobby area and the other leading into the pitch black unknown. The part of the hallway to the right of where they currently stood led to a different angle of the blockage. Directly across the hall were two blue metallic doors. Trotting closer, Bezezelle could see a plaque on the wall next to the door closest to them, which read ‘T_mpor__y E._ C_ld St__ag_’. Many of the letters were missing, but Bezezelle assumed it had once said something along the lines of ‘Temporary E.R. Cold Storage’. Bezezelle’s eyes lit up with hope as she quickly trotted over to the door.

Bezezelle turned the handle and pushed on the door, only for it to resist and barely budge an inch. She jiggled the handle several times in frustration. The hope in her eyes turned to immediate disappointment. The door was locked up tight and upon further inspection, Bezezelle found the door had no actual keyhole but instead was electronically locked and needed a keycard of some kind to open. With no keycard and electricity to power the lock, it seemed as if the contents of the cold storage was forever lost to them.

“What’s this? An e-lock?” Anova questioned as she examined the door.

“Those types of locks won’t open without power, do they Anova?” Bezezelle asked with a sigh.

“Most e-locks have their own battery and use only a minute percentage of it every time it’s used. If this is backup storage for the emergency room, they would have made sure that the battery never died,” Anova replied in a reassuringly cheerful tone.

“And what does that mean? Can you open it?” Bezezelle questioned as she raised an eyebrow.

“It means I probably could and I’ll certainly try, but first I’ll need to find some tools,” Anova answered, visibly excited.

“Well, there was that utility closet near the stairwell. I’m sure there’s something you can use there,” Bezezelle said with a smile.

“We cleared that area, so I’ll be right back. I’ll be quick, but here, take this so you don’t have to stand in the dark,” Anova said excitedly.

Before Bezezelle could object, Anova turned on the Pip-Boy’s flashlight and handed the Pip-Boy to her. Anova made a quiet noise of excitement as she rushed off to the utility closet to find what she needed. Bezezelle sighed softly as she watched Anova leave. It wasn’t until Anova was out of earshot and the sounds of her hooves against the ancient tile floor faded that Bezezelle realized just how horrible the eerie silence of the decaying medical center truly was. Normally, Bezezelle wasn't afraid of the dark in any way, shape or form. In fact, back home she loved the quiet peace that came with the dark, but here in the Black Mountain Medical Center, everything about this darkness made Bezezelle’s legs tremble.

She felt she should have been grateful to have the Pip-Boy to keep the darkness from swallowing her up, but it illuminated such a small fraction of what Anova’s light spell did. In a way, the dim yellow light was almost worse than being in complete darkness. Bezezelle couldn’t help but face her back to the locked door and look around in paranoid vigilance as she waited. The infrastructure of the medical center occasionally groaned and creaked beneath the straining weight of the sand slowly encasing it. The harder she listened, Bezezelle could even hear the sand falling through the cracks and hitting the floor.

Bezezelle tried to take deep, calming breaths as she waited for Anova to return. Back in Equestria, when Anova had been consumed by excitement, she often acted without thinking and charged head-first to accomplish or acquire whatever had garnered her attention and excitement in the first place. The majority of the time, it was harmless and had no real negative consequences, which led to Bezezelle forming a habit of just letting Anova do her thing. It was a habit that now left her alone in the dark in the depths of a buried hospital in an alien universe. Bezezelle was in no way mad or upset with Anova for leaving her alone in a dangerous place, but she knew she would have to remind her later that it wasn’t a good idea to split up.

Bezezelle was unsure how many minutes had passed by until she could hear the familiar sound of Anova’s hoofsteps, but she felt as if several eternities had ticked by. Anova soon emerged from the small office, her illumination spell immediately banishing the majority of the surrounding darkness. Bezezelle breathed a heavy sigh of relief as soon as she laid eyes on Anova and the set of tools she carried with her. The fear Bezezelle had experienced must have been visible on her face, as Anova gave her an apologetic look before hugging her tightly.

“I’m sorry, Bezzy. Were you scared? I got caught up in the excitement of picking a lock and I didn’t stop to think how you’d feel being alone,” Anova explained apologetically.

“All that matters now is that you’re back. I’m not sure how a flathead screwdriver, a pair of pliers and hoof-sized battery is gonna get that lock open, but work your magic I guess,” Bezezelle said with another sigh.

Anova chuckled softly as Bezezelle stepped to the side and gestured towards the lock. With the skilled experience of an inventor and somepony who spent much of her time dismantling various electronic devices, Anova used the flathead to pry off the lock’s black plastic covering and then tossed the covering off to the side. Anova carefully examined the guts of the electronic lock in order to determine the best way to proceed. Bezezelle watched as somehow Anova was able to determine the lock’s battery was nearly drained of its power. No matter how many times she had seen it, Bezezelle was always incredibly impressed and amazed by Anova’s talent with electronic devices.

She watched as Anova used the pliers to pluck out one side of each of the now exposed wires and carefully jerry-rigged the battery she had found to the lock’s wires. After a few seconds, the whole thing began to crackle until it suddenly made a loud ‘pzzt!’ sound and began to smoke a little. Anova chuckled a bit as she removed the found battery from the wires and put it to the side.

“I think I might have fried the lock just a little,” Anova said with another chuckle “but let’s see if maybe- just maybe- that might have worked.”

“You’re going to have to teach me how to pick locks like that. I have no idea what just happened,” Bezezelle said as she softly shook her head.

Anova flashed a proud grin at Bezezelle before turning her attention back to the door. She paused momentarily to put the pliers and flathead into her duffle bag. Anova reached out a hoof and looked at Bezezelle as she slowly turned the handle to the cold storage. Miraculously, the door opened when she turned the handle and pushed inwards. Bezezelle patted Anova’s shoulder proudly and offered the Pip-Boy back to her. Anova slipped the device back on and entered the cold storage with Bezezelle in tow.

The cold storage was a room smaller than the office they had previously walked through to get there. Old, rusted refrigerators lined each of the walls and in the center of the room was a desk with a terminal. A few of the refrigerators were somehow missing their doors, which were nowhere to be found in the room. Wasting no time, the duo set to work checking each fridge for anything useful. Sadly, the majority of the refrigerators were completely empty but they were able to find the last blood pack they needed as well as a couple of packs of something labeled ‘RadAway’ and a bottle of ‘Rad-X’.

“We’ve got everything we need now and then some. Let’s not risk getting killed or trapped here by exploring what’s left,” Bezezelle said as she gestured towards the door.

“Yeah, this place is so creepy and a death trap just waiting to happen. Even so, we could always come back in the future if we needed more medical supplies,” Anova said with a smile.

“Let’s hope we’ve found our way back home before that happens.”