Runes and Mercenaries

Chapters

Chapter 1 - The Deal
Chapter 2 - Frederic Conhanger
Chapter 3 - Ares
Chapter 4 - The Marker
Chapter 5 - The Everfree
Chapter 6 - On the dirt road
Chapter 7 - Sweet Apple Acres
Chapter 8 - Back Home
Chapter 9 - Bloody Mist
Chapter 10 - The Dusk
Chapter 11 - No breaks
Chapter 12 - The wagon
Chapter 13 - Tired and Angry
Chapter 14 - Five minute silence
Chapter 15 - The Needle
Chapter 16 - The broken pieces
Chapter 17 - Where The Rainbow Falls
Chapter 18 - Smell the ashes, Frederic
Chapter 19 - The Lonesome Road
Chapter 20 - The Dagger in the Darkness
Chapter 21 - Broken Pride
Chapter 22 - Allies

Chapter 1 - The Deal

A man was sitting on the ground, stricken by grief. He was alone, in a dark room. The place seemed like a large storage area, Humans and Ponies running around consumed by fear. The atmosphere faded to black, and not a sound to be heard.

Many events have happened after Twilight's coronation, the big decision came to propose to the Humans of Earth to unite with Equestria to live together. At first the Humans only entered in small groups through the mirror in the Crystal Empire but as time passed they became anxious to come over in large. And they have. With the help of Unicorn magic and Human technology, much larger and more effective portals came to existence. And so, Ponies started to live their lives on Earth, as Humans started to live their life in Equestria.

The first years were difficult, Humans felt confused and threatened by the Equestrians, since they had similar creatures but much more primitive in their world, but as years went on things have become at ease on both sides. Since their worlds interact together, there was a need for a Government, one that would represent and control one world.

And so the UNEE or United Nations of Earth and Equestria was established, having two councils. One was the Pony Monarchy that had Princess Celestia in charge, the other was the EarthGov, which functioned on an electoral system that has a man named Ryan Atlax as its representative. It was a simple system. Equestria supplies Earth with magic and Earth supplies Equestria with technology. But after time both worlds became spoiled and dependant on another. Humans stored magic in machines and stones that functioned on a principle that used magic like it was a battery while Ponies used technology to make their everyday life easier, though it was mostly for the Earth Ponies and the Pegasi since they could not perform magic on their own. And the need for both magic and power grew from day to day to a point where they couldn't sustain themselves. So, Earth's Human government began researching into ways to produce more power, when they stumbled upon an obelisk like object that seemed to posses great quantities of power in Earth's desserts. This artifact was discovered by a man known as Michael Altman. Altman's fame grew after his discovery and so, he began exploiting the obelisk for its properties. He dubbed it the Marker. Everything they needed they received. Good and bad things. For reasons unknown the so called Marker project was shut down, due to events that happened in facilities which details were not told to the public, only that Michael Altman was forced to shut down every facility that was involved with the Marker project and not soon after it was ceased by Celestia herself.

Not much was known what happened to Altman after these events. Some say he died, some that he went insane, which was the reason that he failed his project, the rest say that he changed his name and started a new life to get away from his failure, but no one knew for certain. Years after the project was shut down one would think that the whole thing was forgotten. On the contrary, it was just beginning.

An Unicorn walked in a long hallway, where on each side there were flags and paintings representing either the Human or Pony race. The Unicorn reaches a desk where there was a woman writing something in a book. "Excuse me, my name is Vulsegardt, I was called here," the Unicorn asks.

The woman looks at her, "Ah yes, Miss Vulsegardt, representative Atlax will speak with you shortly. Take a seat." The woman points to the benches that were at the wall nearby.

Vulsegardt sits down and observes the hallway around her, she was at the Government centre in Canterlot, where both Human and Pony representatives did their business, so not to a big surprise to her that it was always full of commotion.

After a little while, a man approaches Vulsegardt, "Miss Vulsegardt I presume?" My name is Ryan Atlax, Lead Representative, I understand you are an expert in runes and old magic?"

"Why yes, I am," She points towards her cutie mark, which was a a Futhark F rune crossed by a blue quill. "I don't not understand why I was called here, surely you have staff that can do any translating for you," she asks with a bit of confusion in her voice.

Atlax looks at her with a neutral face, "I need someone out of the Government staff for a favour, if you may. But I'd rather continue this conversation in a bit more private place," He says and begins to lead the way, wearing a serious face until reaching a office in the back end of the second floor in the building.

After entering Vulsegardt sits down on a chair behind a big wooden desk. "And what is it that you require my help with?" she asks as she observes the EarthGov markings on the table.

Ryan also sits down and looks Vulsegardt in the eyes, "I am almost certain that you know of the facilities that exported a high amount of power five years ago?" he asks.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment, "Yes, there were shut down by Celestia's demand, something about the facilities being to dangerous?"

The man starts to search for something in the desk while saying, "Yes, well, they actually weren't that much, but that is not important. We gained that power from an obelisk like artifact that was covered in ancient runes, you see."

Vulsegardt looks closer to what Ryan is looking for with interest. "Really? I heard that they fused some unstable stones with magic," she replies.

Atlax puts a folder of documents on the table. "No, it was something that was discovered on Earth but was not of human or your equine origin. What those runes have to say is my interest and that's why you're here," he explains.

Atlax opens the folder showing a picture of a short bald man wearing goggles and begins to speak, "This is Fedor Conhanger, engineering prodigy--"

"Who discovered the Holder mineral which could contain more magical power that anything your Government would make up with, yes. With that he created larger portals for our worlds, making our combined life much easier," Vulsegardt finishes Ryan's sentence.

Ryan smiles, "Well, looks like you have our history in check. But this man later also worked in one of the facilities which provided power through these obelisks along with Michael Altman, the man who discovered them. He currently lives in the Crystal Empire and works for Princess Cadence, as a portal maintainer. I want you to hire him," he says.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment with a intrigued expression on her face. "If I may ask, would it not be more simple to ask Michael Altman for assistance?"

Ryan slightly frowns. "Michael Altman is missing. After his project was shut down in Celestia's court, he disappeared. That is why you are going to find Mister Conhanger, he is the closest bet to go with to this facility and examine the...Obelisk."

"If all of this was shut down by Celestia, shouldn't she also be here, since I'm going to examine runes that were locked away by her?" Vulsegardt asks with slight worry.

Ryan's face becomes a bit more serious. "Princess Celestia has more important tasks to attend to and so do I for that matter. But I do understand that your grandfather worked as a Guardian of the Canterlot archives?" he changes the topic.

"Yes, I always listened to his stories of what they kept in there," Vulsegardt answers.

"Alright Miss Vulsegardt, do this favour for me and I will grant you full access to all the archives that are in Canterlot, would that interest you?" Ryan offers.

Vulsegardt becomes very interested, since she always wanted access to the knowledge that was located in the locked places of the Canterlot castle. It didn't take long for her to agree to the favour, "Alright, for that I think I may do this for you, Lead Representative Atlax."

"Please, call me Ryan, no need for big name," Atlax says and smiles.

Vulsegardt already smiled and imagined all the knowledge she will receive after she would gain access to the archives, but her daydream was short, as she was interrupted by Atlax, "Even though you are not part of the EarthGov, I want you to keep this task to yourself, you should report to nobody else but me. Then you will get your archives."

Vulsegardt looks at Ryan with slight confusion. "Would it be a problem if I reported to anypony else?"

"This was closed years ago and I do not wish to see people or ponies worrying about dangerous facilities, this is a EarthGov matter and you will report to me, do you understand?" Ryan explains.

In worry that Atlax might change his mind about the archives Vulsegardt agree to his demand and leave the office with the files that contained Conhanger's picture and some other documents about the facilities whereabouts.

"I'm going to get the archives," she says as she chuckles to herself, "But first, I'm off to the Crystal Empire!"

Chapter 2 - Frederic Conhanger

Chapter 2 - Fedor Conhanger

Vulsegardt arrived at the Crystal Empire train station. The whole city looked very much more technology based, unlike it was before the humans arrived. The Crystal Empire was the seat of EarthGov Technologies, a company known to produce most machines in Equestria. It was full of people and ponies who were studying or creating machinery, so it was no big wonder that Vulsegardt's mercenary is living here.

"Let's see here, Fedor Conhanger, teleport maintainer, Crystal Empire,..." She finds lots of documents and pictures in the folder that Ryan gave her. One of the documents was a letter that was addressed to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

She looks at the letter with slight surprise. "That's a nice surprise, looks like I'm going to meet the princess!"

She leaves the train station and heads to the centre of the city, where the crystal tower was located. At the tower entrance, there were two guards. One was a Unicorn, wearing the armour of the Crystal Empire and the other one was Human, wearing armour of the UNEE.

As Vulsegardt approaches the guards stop her. The Unicorn guard approaches her. "Are you here on official business?" He asks.

"Yes, I was sent here by Lead Representative Atlax, I have a letter for Princess Mi Amore Cadenza," She answers.

The human guard approaches Vulsegardt and takes the document folder she was carrying in her bag. After a short while he returns the bag. "It looks real, I suppose you can enter."

Vulsegardt enters the tower, slightly upset that the guard took something from her without permission, but she convinced herself that if she didn't let him, she wouldn't have been able to enter the tower, so she just carried on like nothing happened.

After a short trot, she spots the Princess talking to some Humans, but before she could reach her a Zebra crossed her way. "Excuse me, do you have clearance to be here?"

"Yes, who are you?" Vulsegardt asks.

The Zebra grins. "I am Xuri, one of EarthGov's top Chemical Researcher. I thought this place was personnel only, are you allowed to be here?"

"My name is Vulsegardt and yes, I am allowed to be here. I was sent by Ryan Atlax himself," She makes a proud face.

"Oh, so you are a guest too? Atlax himself? Guess then it's important, I shall bother you no more." The Zebra as he leaves he chuckles to himself.

"That was strange... They sure keep this place in check, I should get a badge next time." She trotted towards the Princess, but she was uncertain what to say, she never spoke to royalty before.

"Uhm, excuse me, I have a letter for the Princess?"

The pink Alicorn turns around and looks at Vulsegardt, "Hello there, sorry, I didn't notice you, how can I help you?"

"There was a letter in my bag that has your name on it, it's from Ryan Atlax," She hands over the letter.

The Princess levitates the letter towards her and opens it, "Atlax you say, are you here on his behalf?"

"Not exactly, I'm here looking for a man named Fedor Conhanger," She answers.

The Princess didn't respond at first, as she was reading the letter. "Yes, says here all about it, but the picture he gave along this letter doesn't exactly look like him, well the goggles are the same and the face is similar, guess it's an very old photo."

Vulsegardt becomes uncertain. "Does a Fedor Conhanger live here, portal maintainer? Very smart?" She became worried that she might have come to the wrong place.

"Oh yes, sorry for the worry, he lives here yes, takes care of most machinery of the Crystal Empire, very respected here, I'll have a guard have you escorted to him if that is alright with you?" The princess asks.

"Yes, thank you Princess." She answered with a smile.

"Of course, wouldn't want Atlax waiting. Guard!" The Princess shouts.

A Human guard steps close. "Yes Princess?"

"Would you please escort our friend here to the basement of the tower, she needs to see Fedor."

"Of course Princess, right away!" The guard starts leading the way towards an elevator that was nearby.

Vulsegardt slightly grins and follows the guard. "Thank you for your help Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!"

The Princess turns around again. "Please, it's Cadence, the full name sounds silly, oh and say hello to Fedor for me!"

"I will! I just made business with a princess!" Saying to herself while she chuckles.

The guard leads Vulsegardt to an elevator, which after they got in went multiple floors down, probably even underground. After the elevator stopped the guard waited for Vulsegardt to get out.

"I will wait here until you get back, don't steal anything," The guard says.

She looked at the guard with a mocked expression on her face, but was able to remain calm, "I certainly will not!"

The guard smirks. "Just saying. There is much expensive material here."

Ignoring what the guard said Vulsegardt makes her way down a long dark hallway where in the distance she sees a man cleaning a small portal frame. She decides to approach him.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for somepony named Fedor Conhanger?" Vulsegardt asks.

The man turns around and looks at Vulsegardt while smiling. "The word you are looking for is somebody, and yes, that would be me. What can I help you with?

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor's face and examines him. "You have long hair, you don't have hair on this picture." She levitates the picture to Fedor's hand.

He grabs it and looks at it. "Well, of course not, this is very old, from my army days," He says.

"You were in the army?" For a second Vulsegardt became worried, why would Ryan want a soldier to come along with her? Is this expedition dangerous? Is there something that she is unaware of?

"Yes, but after I found the Holder crystal I became way more than just a simple field mechanic. You can call me the engineer who knows how to shoot. Now, what was it you needed help with?" Fedor asks.

A letter is levitated into Fedor's hand, similar to the one Cadence received. He took it, opened it and started to read. "Ares station huh? Haven't been there for a while, worked alongside bigshots like Altman before the whole thing went to hell..."

"What happened? The UNEE never told the public what happened there." Vulsegardt asks with interest.

Fedor drops the letter on the ground. "Of course they didn't, it's classified."

She levitates up the letter and puts it on the table. "Look Mister Conhanger, I'm here to hire you to go down there with me to examine runes of an obelisk that was in storage there. And also I think I have the right to know what happened if I'm going down there."

With a small bit of anger in his face he looks from the ground to Vulsegardt. "Probably that damn thing that caused this. I remember that day..."

For a moment he paused and looked back on the ground."I just came in the shift, I was running late. I was still in the elevator when it happened. Someone attacked the station. That, Marker, it... it let out something. The whole station lost power and an evacuation was called. Me, Altman and some others came out, since we weren't that deep in the facility.

Vulsegardt listens closely.

"They closed Ares Station down, said that some radiation from the Marker flooded the facility. Haven't been down there ever since. What makes you think I want to go down there again?" Fedor asks.

"I need to translate the runes on this, Marker you called it?" Vulsegardt answers with a question.

Fedor frowns. "And why should I? That place is a graveyard by now."

After that statement Vulsegardt felt a little calmer, the facility probably isn't dangerous then and the radiation should have cleared up after all these years. "Well, you know the facility, I need a guide and if you help me, I will put a good word for you to Ryan Atlax."

Fedor begins to think. After a while he raises his head to Vulsegardt. "Alright, maybe a good word in the tops would do me well. I'm in."

"Maybe I won't tell him you told me classified information" She replies with a laugh.

"Maybe he will tell you that the letter there says that I can tell you." Fedor replies with a smile and points to the letter on the table.

"So, you are going?" Vulsegardt asks with a smile.

"I suppose since Altman is missing, he won't be mad if I grab some of the crystals in the facility, so I'll tag along with you Miss...?"

"My name is Vulsegardt, nice to meet you Mister Conhanger," She introduces herself.

"Vulsegardt, heh, you horses sure have the strangest of names." Fedor chuckles.

"I'm an Unicorn and I think you Humans have stranger names." She answers with a smug name.

"Well..." He starts laughing for a short while. "We could debate this but I guess you're not here for that. I'll meet you by the train station then, I need to get some gear before we go, assuming we go today am I right?"

For a moment Vulsegardt stops and remembers there wasn't actually a time set on when she should go to this facility. "Uhh, yes! Today, we go today." She smiles.

For a moment Fedor stares at Vulsegardt. "You have no idea do you?"

She looks at Fedor with a serious face, "We go today Mister Conhanger."

"The letter says that we could go tomorrow." He looks at Vulsegardt with a smug face.

"Very funny." She turns around and starts to trot back towards the elevator. "Oh yes, before I forget, Princess Cadence says hello!"

"Tomorrow at twelve at the train station!" Fedor replies while searching through some equipment.

She enters the elevator and looks at the guard, "Take me back up please." She sighs, "I can't believe I got stuck with a know it all."

Chapter 3 - Ares

It was twelve o' clock of the next day. Vulsegardt was standing on the train station looking at all directions for any signs of Fedor. The train was just about to leave and she was uncertain if the train is their means of transportation or not. After a few minutes the train left. She sighs and sits down on one of the benches at the train station. A few minutes later Fedor arrives.

"Hello, sorry I'm late, someone had a light bulb issue," He cringes. "Can't believe some people need my help with those kinds of things."

"The train left Mister Conhanger, you're too late," Vulsegardt says.

"Oh, the train isn't our source of transportation. Follow me." He leads Vulsegardt behind the station where there was a pickup truck.

"We are going with this?" Vulsegardt asks with a slight unimpressed voice.

"Yes, Ares station is deep within Hayseed Swaps, we can't exactly take the train to there." Fedor opens both doors to the truck. "You want shotgun or are you going to be in the back?"

"I will sit in front, your vehicle seems to have lots of luggage in the back" Vulsegardt looks at the the trunk, in which there were many tools, small boxes and such, probably things that only an engineer would use, she thought to herself.

Both of them get into the car and Fedor starts driving down a dirt road. "So, Miss Vulsegardt, where did you stay for the night?"

"The princess gave me a room for the night, the crystal tower is very comfortable, you're lucky to live there," Vulsegardt replies.

"Meh, you wouldn't like it as much over time, place is always loud and full of people doing work. Speaking of which, Where do you live?" Fedor asks.

"I live with my grandfather outside of Canterlot. Compared to the crystal tower it is more peaceful," She answers.

"And what do you do for a living?" Fedor asks with interest.

"Runes. Anything that has to do with runes. I also like going with history." She replies with a smile.

Fedor chuckles. "Why you're perfect for the job, exploring dark caves of old treasures and knowledge."

Vulsegardt smirks. "Funny. But we are not Daring Doo and we are going in a facility to translate an abandoned artifact. Not to retrieve it, at least not the whole thing, we are expected to bring back a sample..."

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt with an unamused face. "You must be great at parties, but I suppose you're right." He looks back at the road. "Alot of bad things happened there, I've lost friends when it happened."

Vulsegardt looks on the road with a sympathetic expression on his face. "I'm sorry to hear that, did you ever ask what happened to cause everything?"

"Celestia and Atlax weren't too keen on answering and neither was EarthGov, everything was strictly confidential and we weren't allowed to talk about it in public."

"I suppose that is for the best, they wanted to avoid panic amongst everypony," Vulsegardt says with slight worry.

Fedor starts mildly laughing.

"What's so funny?" She asks.

After a short while he stops laughing and looks at Vulsegardt. "Somepony, anypony, everypony, I still can't take that seriously."

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor with an unimpressed face. "It's the way it is Mister Conhanger and please, keep your eyes on the road."

Fedor still doesn't look at the road, making Vulsegardt slightly worried.

"Don't do that Mister Conhanger, we could get really hurt," She says.

Fedor looks back at the road and takes a deep breath. "Yeah, we are going to have so much fun together."

"I don't know for you Mister Conhanger but, I'm going to enjoy translating the artifact, runes are my passion." Vulsegardt explains herself.

A couple of hours of driving later Fedor parks the car deep in the Hayseed Swamp's forest not so far from a cliff. "Alright Miss runes are my passion, we're here."

Vulsegardt jumps out of the truck and looks down the cliff. She sighs. "Down this cliff. It's very deep."

"We could go down there, or we take the closer entrance." He points to the ground not to far away from where he parked.

Vulsegardt steps to where Fedor pointed and starts looking around her. She notices a barely visible valve on the ground. "Here it is!" With her magic she spins the valve around opening a small entrance in the ground. There was a ladder leading deep underground. "We go down here?"

"Yeah, this was the emergency exit I've got through when the evacuation went off. Watch your step, I'll go first." He starts to climb down the long ladder after a short while Vulsegardt starts climbing down as well.

The place where the bottom of the ladder was located was dark, which made sense since the station did not have any power. Vulsegardt starts emitting light from the top of her horn, performing a light spell.

Fedor looks at her with relief. "Let there be light." He takes out a flashlight and turns it on. "Alright, what we are looking for is on the bottom level, the observation deck."

Vulsegardt starts trotting down the hallway with enthusiasm in her voice. "Then there is where we go. Come Mister Conhanger, the artifact awaits!"

Fedor starts following her with a slightly concerned expression on his face. "Wait, there is something not quite right about this place..."

Vulsegardt stops and starts staring at something on the ground. The expression on her face was saying that something is very wrong. "Mister Conhanger, you might want to see this..."

Fedor walks up behind Vulsegardt and looks at the same direction as she was staring. It was a human corpse. Judging by the dust on it, it has been there for a long time. He had an Ares Station staff uniform holding a weapon. "Ares Staff, this man was here and stayed here ever since it happened." Fedor sighs. He picks up the shotgun and a small bag that was attached to the man's waist.

"Mister Conhanger what are you doing? You can't loot the dead!" Vulsegardt raises her voice.

"Of course I can, this is an old EarthGov shotgun model. They don't make them like these anymore," Fedor explains himself.

"What about the bag?" Vulsegardt points towards the taken bag.

Fedor opens the bag and looks inside of it, "It has a few crystals in it, I can use them, these things are very expensive these days you know." He attaches the small bag to his belt.

Vulsegardt looks at him with a disappointed face. "I still don't think that just looting them is right."

Fedor sighs again and takes out a small crystal from his pocket. He taps it and from it a blue flat image appears above it. It was a map. "We can go this way to the Marker. You get your runes and I get my crystals." He starts to walk down a hallway, Vulsegardt following him.

While they were walking they were both silent. They were in a dark place, it had a large variety of hallways and closed doors. They kept walking until Vulsegardt stepped on something.

"I think I stepped on something." She looks closer on what she stepped, it was a small pool of dried green liquid. "Ah, disgusting, What is this?" She looks around the pool and quickly noticed another corpse. It looked like an earth pony but after close examination she found out otherwise. "This is a changeling! What are they doing here?"

At first Fedor didn't answer. "They were the one who attacked Ares. They did something, they ruined everything, wanted to steal it too." Fedor steps closer to the changeling corpse and starts to look for any valuables, but the corpse had none.

Vulsegardt slightly gasps. "The changelings attacked? That's awful, was the Queen here too?"

"No, I don't think so, they weren't all insect like horses, they were some sort of a group, crazy people and ponies. And changelings," Fedor answers.

"Do you know why they attacked?" Vulsegardt asks.

"No. But I'm just guessing they wanted the Marker for themselves," Fedor speculates.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. "And how did Ares get under radiation then?"

Fedor becomes slightly upset and looks at Vulsegardt "Look, Miss runes, I don't know what happened here, I want to, I really do, but I don't."

Vulsegardt stays silent for a moment while they are walking. "Can I borrow the map?"

Fedor gives her the map, she activates it and starts looking across the map displayed. "We could go to the observation deck above the storage. They observed the artifact from there. There sure has to be some information on what happened here. The elevator to it's just right of the entrance to the storage. Can you get the elevator working?"

Fedor takes back the map. "Why are you so interested in this place? I don't want any trouble with the Government, you know how strict Atlax and Celestia are? I don't want to get on their bad side cause you wanted to snoop around."

"This is your job mister Conhanger, you are a mercenary after all," Vulsegardt replies.

Fedor smirks, "You can ask Celestia when we get back all I care, after all, she shut all of this down herself."

"I assume she did what she did to protect everypony from any threats," Vulsegardt explains her point of view.

"Threats like what, having power? You know how badly Earth is doing ever since the Marker project was shut down? Why do you think I live here?" Fedor slightly raises her voice.

The thought of millions of people living under bad circumstances made Vulsegardt worry. "Yes, but I heard EarthGov got some plan in their heads to get new resources."

Fedor smirks and looks at Vulsegardt. "You mean planetcracking? I've heard of that. Funding space travel to steal from other planets since our own has nothing. You've got to be kidding. Something like that is way more expensive than the Marker project. Come on, let's keep moving." Fedor continues to walk. "It should be close."

Vulsegardt continues to follow Fedor. "Don't be so fast to lose hope mister Conhanger. Sometimes the most crazy ideas turn out to be the most efficent."

They come upon a large door. It was the entrance to the storage, where the artifact was held.

Fedor starts knocking on the door. "Well, great. I knew it wouldn't be as easy as this."

"I guess nopony is home, can you open it?"

Fedor puts down a backpack he was carrying around and pulls out some kind of metal rod. "Yeah, I hope this thing still works though, made it myself." Fedor looks with a smug face. "I call it the can opener, if I'm lucky enough to find a control panel I might be able to send in a little bit of power in that will open the door. Hopefully enough for us to pass through it."

Vulsegardt becomes slightly upset. "What do you mean hopefully, did you think this whole thing through?"

Fedor still smug, turns around to Vulsegardt. "Trust me, if I can't get it open no one can. Help me find a panel, every door has one in case if malfunctions, you take right, I'll take left."

They both split up Vulsegardt taking right and Fedor left. Vulegardtt notices a small hallway ending with an elevator. She thinks to herself. "This is probably the elevator to the observation deck, hmm." She ponders and starts looking up on the ceiling. It was very high, she couldn't see it all the way, it was to dark. "Hmm, what is that?" She sees a small shaft opening with something sticking out. It looked like a Pegasus. Vulsegardt begins to stare up, taking a few steps back. "Mister Conhanger, there is something here you need to see."

Fedor turns around. "I hope it's the panel, cause I got nothing on my end." He starts walking towards Vulsegardt.

Vulsegardt, still staring at the Pegasus, she notices that the Pegasus moves and started to stare back at her. "Oh, Celestia, someone is hurt up there! Hello! Are you alright?" The Pegasus didn't reply, it let out some strange noises that sounded like someone vomiting and screaming at the same time. After a short stare it hides back to the shaft.

Fedor steps by Vulsegardt and looks up. "I see nobody."

"It was something, I swear, a Pegasus I think," Vulsegardt says.

"Miss Vulsegardt, this is an abandoned station that was flooded by radiation, I don't know what you saw, probably an animal which got in through a hole, or mutant rats, I don't know." He looks to the left on the wall and sees a panel. "Jackpot." Quickly, he approached the panel and opened it. Through a small hole in the controls he sticks the rod and presses a button on it. The rod started to illuminate much brighter than Vulsegardt light spell and let out loud noises, ironically sounding like there was a power failure, but instead of a failure, the panel lights lighted up for a short moment and the door started opening. It opened somewhere around a meter wide before everything shuts down again. Fedor pulls out the rod and puts it back in the backpack. "Alright, now we're rolling."

Vulsegardt still worried about the Pegasus in the vents, she convinces herself that it was something else and follows Fedor to the Storage department. "Glad that thing worked, for a moment I was worried we would be stuck."

Fedor smiles. "Don't be so fast to lose hope miss Vulsegardt."

Vulsegardt with an unimpressed look on her face looks at Fedor. "They told me you were the best for the job, why would I lose hope?"

Fedor cuts down the smile. "You were supposed to say ha ha, Mister Conhanger you used my words against me, you are so funny."

"No," Vulsegardt replies.

Defeated, Fedor turns around and enters the storage department. It was a big space, not all of it was seen cause of the dark. Fedor starts pointing the flashlight in every direction until he spots a large object in the centre of the area. "I think that's it! Man this place stinks of metal and vomit." He starts to approach the supposed artifact.

Vulsegardt steps in front of the object and illuminates it as much as she could. The revealed object had a black exterior with red runes carved in it. She takes a few steps back and looks up to the top of the object, it was three times the size of Fedor and on the top it had two peaks that were symmetrically connected from each side. "This is it."

"You sure?" Fedor asks.

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor with joy. "Yes mister Conhanger, this is the Marker."

Chapter 4 - The Marker

It was tall, dark and covered in runes.

Vulsegardt approached the object and looks at it's markings closely. "This is amazing, just look at it!"

"Id rather not," Fedor refuses.

Vulsegardt lifts up a pen and journal book and starts to copy the markings that were on the artifact into the book. "I can't see all of them, can you give me a boost?"

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt in a funny way. "How am I suppose to do that? You don't exactly walk on two, if you haven't noticed."

"Easy mister Conhanger, you lift me up," Vulsegardt answers.

Fedor sighs and steps next to Vulsegardt. He squats, allowing Vulsegardt to jump on his back. "Damn, you're heavy."

"That's not a what a gentleman would say mister Conhanger," She says jokingly and begins to copy runes from the upper parts of the artifact into her journal. "These markings are amazing, very old, oh, this will be a joy translating."

"Whenever you're done Miss Vulsegardt my back can't take much of this ponyback," Fedor complains.

Vulsegardt ignores Fedor and starts humming a song while she is copying the runes.

Fedor stares into runes that he didn't understand. After a few moments a small part of the artifact slowly begins to glow. "Whoa... Hey, this part is glowing. Hey!"

Vulsegardt stops humming and looks down but sees nothing. "Nothing is glowing Mister Conhanger. Your comments can wait, I am what you would call in the zone right now." She looks back up and goes on with her copying. The rune Fedor was looking at explodes and a sudden wave of light flashes into Fedor's eyes. He falls on the ground, but quickly gets up. "What is this?!" He notices that Vulsegardt is gone and that he is not at the facility he was just in, he was in a dessert.

"Wait... Miss Vulsegardt? What the hell is going on?" He begins to run on the sand looking around for anything, but there was nothing. Just sand. He turns around and suddenly the Marker appears in front of him very closely. All of the runes on the Marker begin to glow emitting a bloody red light out of every rune. In fear he begins to step backwards but trips on his foot and falls on the ground. The runes started to emit sounds of screaming and crying. He begins to crawl back as the Marker starts to lean towards him, collapsing on him before he could move away.

"Mister Conhanger? Are you alright? Mister Conhanger, wake up!"

Fedor opens his eyes, he was back at Ares facility laying on the ground.

Vulsegardt helps Fedor up and looks at him with a worried expression on her face. "You suddenly fell and started to scream, are you alright?"

"I, uh... My head hurts. I'm fine," Fedor answers.

Vulsegardt not believing, steps closer. "Are you sure?"

"It's like I got teleported, that thing, it fell on me," Fedor explains.

Vulsegardt confused she turns to the Marker and back to Fedor. "Nothing happened, except for you dropping me, which I don't appreciate very much by the way."

He frowns. "I'm sorry, won't happen again."

Both step to the Marker and continue their work, but mostly Fedor was looking at things he did not understand.

After a little while a cough was heard not far away from where Vulsegardt and Fedor were. Vulsegardt in confusion quickly turns around and looks into darkness. "What...? Hello? Is anypony there?"

Suddenly loud noises of steps are heard coming from the darkness. Whoever was coming their way was still making coughing noises. Fedor steps in front of Vulsegardt and points his flashlight towards where the supposed person was coming from.

But it wasn't a person. Or pony. The light revealed a the Pegasus from the vents and he seemed to be very injured, covered in blood and was able to walk on two legs like a human. It stared at the ground as closing in to Vulsegardt and Fedor.

Both step back with a bit of fear on their faces.

Fedor points the light on the Pegasuses face. "You... You alright there?"

The Pegasus looks at Fedor and screams in a way that no normal being could. It turned around and ran away, back into the darkness. After a few moments multiple screams were heard varied of the distance of Fedor's and Vulsegardt's location.

Vulsegardt quickly steps to the Marker and starts copying runes in a faster manner. "We have to pick up the paste mister Conhanger!"

Fedor looking at the darkness with a dropped jaw. "Are you insane? What just happened?!" He asks with a raised voice.

Vulsegardt turned around but didn't answer. She stayed silent staring at Fedor. For a few moments she kept copying the runes but after a while she begins to mutter as her horn and eyes slowly begin to glow red, she turns to the Marker, dropping everything she was holding and begins to speak in an language that Fedor didn't recognize. As she was speaking all of the runes on the Marker started to glow red like her eyes and horn.

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt with an worried expression, "Hey! What are you doing?"

Out of a nearby hole in the wall the Pegasus from before returns and starts to crawl towards Fedor.

Fedor, noticing the creature pulls out the shotgun which was picked up earlier and points it to the Pegasus. "Stay back! I swear to God I'll shoot!"

The Pegasus ignoring Fedor, steps on two and starts to run towards him. In a moment Fedor pulls the trigger making a large hole in the creatures head. However that didn't stop the Pegasus. It just stopped running and began to slowly approach him.

"Wh-What?" He begins to fire again, up to three times until the creature of a Pegasus falls down. He turns around to Vulsegardt only to notice that three more bloody bodies were approaching them. An earth pony and two humans, all mutilated and covered in what was probably their own blood. He looks around and sees that he and Vulsegardt are almost completely surrounded.

Vulsegardt, still speaking in unknown, making the Marker glow more and more, she steps back and stops chanting. After a few moments the peaks of the Marker begins to form some sort of spear of energy on it's top.

Fedor runs to Vulsegardt and begins to shake her. "Hello? Wake up!" Desperately trying to get Vulsegardt together as the bloody creatures slowly approach them.

With no success he looks at the Marker pointing his shotgun at it and fires. The shot did nothing, but seconds later the orb on top of the Marker bursts and releases a loud surge of electromagnetic energy. It sounded like multiple horns and trumpets bursted at once.

The creatures, intimidated by the sound of the Marker run away into vents or other rooms that were open. After the surge all lights of the facility lights turned on, it seemed as if the Marker powered the whole facility.

Based by it's position and multiple cables attached to it, it was used to power the station and somehow it became active. After the place was lighted, it could be seen that most of the walls were covered in blood and blood markings on the wall similar to the ones on the Marker.

Vulsegardt faints and falls on the ground. Fedor, horrified by the scenery showed to him, he quickly grabs Vulsegardt's book and stuffs it into her backpack, grabs Vulsegardt by her hind leg and starts pulling her towards the way they came from.

On halfway to the door, Vulsegardt wakes, shakes her head and gets up. "Ugh, what happened?"

"What do you mean what happened? You did something to the Marker, now we got monsters roaming around! We need to get out! Now!" Fedor shouts.

Vulsegardt looks back at the Marker. "What about the artifact?"

"Forget the artifact! I'm not dying because of this crap, and suggest you come along!" Fedor replies.

Vulsegardt agrees and both start running towards the way they came but on the hallway from which they came, more creatures awaited them. These were more injured than the last ones. Some seemed to have extra limbs and missing jaws.

Vulsegardt looks around in panic for any way out. "Mister Conhanger look! The elevator to the observatory! We can go up there!"

"That's as good as plan as any. Come on, move!" Fedor agrees.

Both step on a small platform. Fedor pushes a button on the controls and the platform on which they were standing on begins to rise up. He looks at Vulsegardt with obvious anger in his face "You sent me on a suicide mission!"

"Me? I didn't know that everypony here was mutated, you can't blame this on me!" Vulsegardt defends herself

While they were arguing a human like creature jumps from a went on Fedor. The creature jumps on his back and bites Fedor on his right shoulder. Fedor screams as the creature munches with what were surely unnatural teeth onto Fedor's flesh. Vulsegardt scared, steps back, closes her eyes, pulls the creature away from Fedor and pushes it off the platform with her magic. The creature falls multiple meters down until hitting the ground.

Fedor sits down and puts his hand on the wound to stop the bleeding. "Argh, shit, now we really need to get out."

Vulsegardt, shocked over the fact that she pushed someone over a big distance turns to Fedor. "Are you alright?"

"What the hell do you think?" He stays silent for a moment not getting an answer. "Thanks for helping out, these things are festering this place."

"How much are you bleeding, let me see." She pulls Fedor's hand off his shoulder to reveal the bite.

It had six small holes, from which blood was slowly dripping out.

"Can you do any healing magic?" Fedor asks.

"I can't, neither I don't have the equipment, sorry." She stays silent for a moment. "Will you be alright?"

Fedor, putting back his hand on the wound, slightly smiles. "Ask me that after we get out of this hole."

The platform stops. In front of them there is a small hallway with a door on the end with a sign above it saying observatory.

Vulsegardt steps down and looks around for any dangers. "Do you think we can be safe here?"

"They climb in the vents, we can't assume anything. Can you take my shotgun? I really don't want to bleed right now," Fedor says as he offers the shotgun to Vulsegardt.

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor's wound, realizing he won't be able to defend himself. "I never used firearms before."

Fedor, with the other hand and drops it next to Vulsegardt. "Well today is your lucky day, you get to shoot monsters."

Reluctantly, she picks it up with her magic and shakes it. "How much ammunition does it still hold?"

Fedor shrugs, "I don't know, ask those mutants."

Vulsegardt, looks at the ground and begins to think silently.

"What is it?" Fedor asks.

She looks at Fedor. "What if they aren't monsters, what if they are just fine and under the artifacts control?"

Fedor looks back at Vulsegardt, "We'll let Atlax and Celestia worry about that, I'd like to get moving now, cause monsters or not, it's really not safe here."

"You're right." Vulsegardt begins to walk to the observatory door, with Fedor following her behind.

After the door opens Vulsegardt moves the shotgun in first aiming at directions in case of any threats. Due to her inexperience the shotgun was leaned in a clumsy manner. "Alright, I think that the room is empty."

They both step inside, Fedor notices a opened first aid box on the front table, he quickly walks to it and starts searching it. "Gauze, heh, I may live to see another day."

The room was clean, there was no blood and there were no bodies. Vulsegardt steps to the observation window and looks down on the storage. The Marker stopped glowing, but it was beginning to be surrounded by a large group bloody bodies which were moving in a way that one would assume they were worshipping it. She sits down looks at the ground with a panicked expression on here face. "Mister Conhanger... I'm scared."

Fedor, applying gauze on his wound, stops for a moment and looks at Vulsegardt. "Hey, we're gonna be alright. After we get back we will give Celestia and Atlax so much hell, they will have to make us both rich to get a break."

With a worried face, she looks up. "Can you be serious for one minute? We were attacked and somepony tried to eat you!" She sits down next to the wall and slowly begins to sob.

Fedor drops the smile and quickly cleans his wound with some water from the first aid box, applies gauze to his wound, grabs a roll of duct tape from a table and wraps it around the wound, making a circle between his armpit and the wound. For a moment he stares at Vulsegardt until getting up and walking to her.

He kneels and puts his hand on Vulsegardt's shoulder. "Hey, we are going to be fine. I promise. I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation."

"We need solutions, not stupid jokes," Vulsegardt answers.

"Don't take it out on me though. Alright, let's find a way out of here then." He stands up and begins to look around. He pulls out the crystal in which he had stored the map. He opens it and starts to look for any nearby way out. But no luck. "Hell, ain't no way we are getting out without being noticed. Maybe the vents..." He steps to a computer that was next to the window on the observatory. Before touching the on switch the computer lights up and begins to display several windows.

"User Marker Mike recognized. Access granted. Welcome back. It has been 1407 days since your last entry." Fedor looks at some windows displayed, but closes most. "Marker Mike, wow, the stupid names some people come up with. Computer, open the ventilation system mapping."

"Loading ventilation schematics." Fedor smirks, "Hmph, can't believe they would let just anyone use this with no passwords required."

Vulsegardt gets up and steps next to Fedor as the map for the ventilation begins to load. "What are you doing?"

"Finding a solution. In the meantime, wanna hear a knock knock joke?" Fedor asks with a smile.

Vulsegardt slightly smiles but doesn't reply.

"Knock, Knock."

Vulsegardt cringes. "Who is there?"

"Vents."

She looks at him with a confused expression on her face. "What?"

"Simple, if we want to get to an exit without being noticed, we will have to use the vents to get to one. I think it's the safest idea, considering we aren't armed for warfare," Fedor explains.

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor with doubt in her eyes.

"Look." He points through the observatory window. "They are gathering there, doing God knows what. We can get out of here while they dance around there."

She looks at Fedor's shoulder, slightly concerned. "Duct tape? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

She could see in Fedor's face that he was in pain but was trying to hide it to avoid panic. "I suppose we could take the vents but those monsters are using them too."

"Do you have any better ideas?" Fedor asks.

Vulsegardt begins to mutter, "Well...No...I don't. But I don't want to die here either."

"As long as we stay quiet, we will be alright, trust me, I did this so many times in the army," Fedor says.

For a moment she didn't reply. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."

Fedor smiles. "You should hear Cadence when she gets mad."

"I trust you," Vulsegardt replies.

"You have no other choice, come on. Let's get out of here." He puts down his backpack pulling out a screwdriver and putting in the duct tape he used to mend his wound. He steps on a table and starts to taking down screws that were holding a vent on the ceiling. After four big screws fall down, Fedor moves away, allowing the vent to fall down exposing a hole in the ceiling. "Alright, I think we can squeeze through here."

Vulsegardt looks up at the opened vent. "And then what?"

"We take two lefts, two rights and a left. There is a vent next to an emergency fire exit, I don't know where it leads, but hell, I'll take anything right about now," Fedor replies.

"I suppose we really don't have any other choice." She climbs on the table.

"I'll go on first." He jumps up and crawls into the vent. He turns around and reaches out with his right hand. "Come on, I can hear them outside of the room."

She nods jumps up and grabs Fedor's hand, wrapping her hooves around it. Fedor starts to pull up but let's go halfway, making Vulsegardt fall down. He moans of pain. "Shit! Argh, I'm sorry!" Fedor apologizes.

Vulsegardt gets back up on the table and looks up. "How are you holding up?"

Fedor switches sides and reaches out with his left hand. "I'm doing just fine, take my hand."

She nods again, repeating the process but now with success. She climbs into the went. "Lead the way."

They begin to crawl, taking two lefts, then two rights. But after the right corner they stumble upon a bloody body that seemed to be laying in the way.

Fedor sighs. "Great, now what?"

The bloody shape moves, lifting it's head, showing an unicorns head with no jaw. The unicorn begins to moan and approach Fedor.

Fedor gasps and starts to crawl back. "Get back, get back!"

Both of them begin to crawl back in a slightly faster manner than the monster approaching them.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment then uses magic to lift the shotgun from Fedor's back and points it at the bloody unicorn. "Do I shoot it?"

"You need to ask? Yes, you shoot it!" Fedor screams.

She pulls the trigger and a hole goes into the unicorns head, pouring out blood and an eyeball. The creature doesn't die, instead it quickly begins to crawl backwards as in running away while screaming in a unnatural manner.

"Crap, we gonna get company, move, move, move!" They begin to crawl as fast as they could until making their final turn. "This is it! Let me open it." Fedor begins to unscrew the screws connected to the vent. Upon pulling out four, the vent falls down and crashes on the ground, making a loud noise. Both Fedor and Vulsegardt gasp and stay silent, listening if anything is coming their way. "I think we're clear, let's go."

Fedor jumps down first, followed by Vulsegardt. They seemed to be in some sort of a garage area. Fedor takes out the map crystal and activates it. "Well, not exactly a fire exit, but we can get through the garage door." He steps to a door, that was used for trucks or other vehicles to enter the facility. He pushes the button next to the door and the door begins to lift up.

Vulsegardt steps close with a smile on her face. "For a moment there, I thought that thing would bite your face."

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt with a slightly surprised face. "Wasn't the first time someone ran away from my face."

As they both begin to laugh, the lights of the room shut down and the door stops lifting.

Vulsegardt illuminates her horn to produce light. "What happened?"

Fedor looks up toward the lights. "Guess the Marker ran out of juice or some-"

Before he could finish the sentence the ground shakes and the whole place sounded like multiple horns being blown at once, similar to the sound the Marker made before turning the facility on. They both fall on the ground.

Vulsegardt gets up and looks at the garage door. It was half open. "Mister Conhanger, the door, we can leave!" She steps to Fedor and helps him in getting up.

Not far away screams and growling could be heard heard coming their way.

Fedor takes Vulsegardt's hoof and gets up. "Yeah, let's go. We have to get to my car."

They both crouch and quickly climb through the opening of the garage door with relief on their faces. They didn't recognize where they were.

"Where is your car?" Vulsegardt asks.

Fedor starts looking around and thinks. "Come on, follow me, I think I know where the car is." He begins to walk in a direction.

Vulsegardt takes a few steps and looks back at the garage door. She stares at it for a few seconds then begins to follow Fedor.

Chapter 5 - The Everfree

"Shouldn't we close the door?" Vulsegardt asks while looking back.

Fedor stops and turns around. "Yeah, but the power is out and I can hear them coming this way, how do you suggest we close it?"

Vulsegardt ponders for a few moments until looking at Fedor's left side of the belt he was wearing. "That power rod of yours could do the trick."

Fedor takes the rod off his belt. "I suppose you're right. But let's be quick about it."

They begin to return to the exit from which they came when a sudden wave of force rushes out of the entrance and knocks both on the ground. The same sound was produced when the Marker was first activated, but this time it was louder and lasted for minutes.

Vulsegardt was unable to get up. The force that knocked her down made her feel like her brain is going unstable from inside her head. She begins to scream of pain, while holding her head.

Fedor on the other hand felt nothing. He got up and stared back at the facilities entrance. His vision began to narrow down as all he heard became quiet. He didn't realize that Vulsegardt was down screaming. He drops the rod on the ground, as his mind begins to shut down.

From inside a loud banging and hitting could be heard on one of the doors leading into the garage. It was a group of creatures they seen inside of the facility. Fedor at the sound of screaming and hitting regains his sense of vision and sound. He hears Vulsegardt screaming, quickly shakes his head and runs to Vulsegardt, trying to help her get up.

Suddenly the sound of horns stop and Vulsegardt stops screaming.

Fedor helps her getting up. "Are you alright, you screamed like you were dying!"

Vulsegardt moans, "I-I don't know what happened. It's like my brain couldn't take the frequency that the Marker was giving... my head hurts."

"Well, no time to waste, we need to get the hell out of here!" Fedor quickly says.

"What about the door?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Now!" He pushes Vulsegardt as they both begin to move away.

They walk down a narrow path, which lead to a river, from there they followed the river for a short while until they started to go up a hill. Not to far away screams of the Ares workforce could be heard. Fedor looks up the hill. "We should get to the car if we go up here."

For a short while they climbed up a hill until reaching the hatch from where they entered and the pick up truck parked close by. Fedor opens the door and sits in. He pulls out a key from his pocket and puts it in the keyhole. He twists it, but nothing happens. "Uh oh."

Vulsegardt looking down the cliff, she notices creatures lurking from the barely visible garage door into the swamps. She turns to Fedor with fear in her eyes. "Uh oh is bad, what do you mean uh oh?"

"The battery died," Fedor explains.

"How could the battery die right now, don't you have another one back with the other junk?" Vulsegardt asks panicked.

He gets up and starts to search the trunk of the car. He pulls out a small battery and observes it. He moves to the front of the car, replacing the old battery with the new one. He sits back in and tries to start up the engine again. Nothing happens. In anger he hits the wheel of the car. "Great! That's just my God damn luck!"

"What do we do now?" Vulsegardt asks.

He thinks for a moment, "Baltimare isn't to far from here."

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor with confusion. "You're not thinking of going on foot are you?"

"Yes, I am. Come on." He answers and goes to the back of the car, grabs some items and puts them in his backpack. "You coming?" He asks.

"I guess I have no choice." They begin to go into the forest.

It was a silent walk.

Vulsegardt was looking at Fedor's shoulder with a worried expression on her face. "How is your shoulder?" She asks.

"Better. We need to get to Celestia as fast as we can." Fedor replies.

"Actually, this is EarthGov business. After I've got the runes from the Marker I'm supposed to translate them and bring them to Ryan Atlax and him only," Vulsegardt explains.

"Atlax? Does Celestia know about this?" Fedor looks at Vulsegardt with suspicion.

"I... Uhm..." She remembers that Celestia wasn't with her and Atlax when she was given this expedition. "Of course she knows! Look, let's just try to find a hospital for that shoulder of yours, find a quiet place to sit down, translate this and then we go to Canterlot. Please?"

Fedor slightly sighs. "I knew you were trouble the moment you entered my workshop. Besides, I could get a new arm if I wanted to."

Vulsegardt grins, "Your shoulder is injured and, where would you get an arm? You can't just get something like that by the way."

"Back in the Crystal Empire, Prince Armor financed me to create a mechanical limb replacer. And know you too can become a cyborg," Fedor explains.

Vulsegardt smiles. "Sounds like fiction. But we should get you checked and settle down."

"What about the creatures?" Fedor asks with worry.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. "We'll inform Atlax of them, but it doesn't do much damage if they go wandering around in these swamps, of course on some point Atlax will have to take them out."

They reach a small dirt road on which there was a parked car. By the car there was a man and a Unicorn. The man was in front of the car with the hood open and the Unicorn was watching him. Fedor raises his hand and begins to walk towards them. "Hey! We need some help here."

The unicorn turns to Fedor and notices the shotgun on his back. He takes a step back. "You dangerous?"

Vulsegardt steps in front of Fedor. "No, our car broke down. We need a ride. Can you help us?"

The unicorn looks at Vulsegardt with a confused expression on his face. "Yours stopped working too? Where were you two, we didn't see any other cars behind us."

Fedor takes a step and pulls out his wallet. "I give you 1000 bits if you stop asking questions and take us wherever you're going."

The man closes the car's hood and looks at Fedor with a smile. "Ho, that looks pretty shiny, we're going to the Everfree's camp. I just got my car working and you two are welcome to join for that pretty shiny."

Vulsegardt sighs. "Fine, guess this is the best we can get."

Fedor steps to Vulsegardt and begins to whisper. "Everfree camp isn't exactly Canterlot. I'd rather see us avoid it."

"Ponyville isn't far from the Everfee. They have a good hospital and a train station there. We can go from Everfree to Ponyville and stay there for a few days," Vulsegardt explains.

Fedor thinks for a moment. "Alright, sounds good." He looks at the man and Unicorn by the car. "Is the car really working?"

"Yeah, the first battery got broke and we put another one in. This one doesn't look so good either, but it will probably get us to Everfree." The man steps to Fedor and extends his hand. "But first the payment for our services."

Fedor sighs and hands over a number of bills. "And if I didn't have anything to offer?"

The man smiles. "Heh, lucky for you that's not the case." He pulls out a pistol out of his back pocket.

Vulsegardt on the sight of the pistol takes a step back.

"You're not the only one who is armed in Hayseed." He puts the pistol away. "Come on, we're leaving."

Vulsegardt and Fedor look at each other with doubt on their faces, but they knew they had no other option. They get into the car along with the man and unicorn. The drive lasted for a few hours. In this time not much was spoken in the car. They arrive in front of a metal gate. The man turns around and looks at Fedor. "This is where you get out."

Fedor smirks and leaves the car, Vulsegardt following him. The metal gate was surrounded by a wide big brick wall. Everfree camp was a small community of People and Ponies who wanted to stay low or avoid authority. It had a big round brick wall which was used to fend of any forest creatures. As the metal gates open they enter into something that looked like a small village.

Vulsegardt turns to Fedor. "I hope there is a doctor somewhere around here, you need help."

"That wouldn't be so bad, yeah." He looks around, looking for someone to ask for a doctor, but the people walking around the everfree camp seemed full of people with untrustworthy expressions on their faces. He looks around to notice an earth pony who didn't look at his belongings when he went by them. Fedor raises his hand and steps to him. "Hey you! I need some medical attention, here you got anything?"

The earth pony, shakes his head and turns around, almost to scared to answer. "Z-Zed is the town's doctor. He's by the inn on the other side." He turns around and quickly trots away.

"Good, now we can get you patched up and if they have an inn we can stay here for the night too," Vulsegardt says.

Fedor whistles. "If it goes like this I'm going to end up broke."

Vulsegardt chuckles and they start to make their way to towards the said inn. Upon their arrival to the inn they notice a man covered in blood wearing a medical mask with a jar that had a heart in it. Vulsegardt frightened by the sight of what might possibly be another monster leaps back and slightly bumps into Fedor, hinting that he should do the same.

The man puts down the mask the jar mask. "I could hear my name being said a mile away, heard you folks might need some help."

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt with small worry in his face, after a second he looks the man back in the eyes. "You named Zed?"

"I am. I'm the doctor of this little community. Name's Zed," He introduces himself.

Vulsegardt looks at the jar Zed dropped. "And are you a licensed doctor or a butcher?"

Zed smiles. "Neither, but I have medical training, for the right price."

Fedor tips his pockets, checking if he still has all of his belongings. "I can pay you."

Zed looks with a little bit more interest at Fedor. "And what is your problem?"

"I got bit." Fedor answers.

"By what?" Zed asks.

Fedor at first didn't answer. He thought for a second on what to say. "Don't know. Our car broke down, something jumped up and bit me. My friend here shot it once but it got away," He points at Vulsegardt. "Probably a rabid fox or something."

"I can help you, follow me." Zed picks up the jar and begins to lead them into the inn's basement. The basement was badly illuminated and had lots of jars with organs inside of them stored on shelves. Zed puts on round glasses on his face and looks at Fedor's shoulder. "Duck tape huh? You must work a lot with machines then," Zed speculates.

"How did you guess?" Fedor asks.

Zed smiles. "An organ donor once came in here covered in the stuff. He was an engineer too."

Vulsegardt joins the conversation, "And did he leave this camp alive?"

Zed looks at Vulsegardt with an insulted face, "No. But that was his choice, not mine. Why don't you sit down and be nice, since I'm generously offering my help."

"We are paying you." Vulsegardt says.

Fedor turns to Vulsegardt. "Just sit down."

She scrunches and sits down, observing the basement they were in with an expression on her face that makes her look like she is preparing for a fight.

He looks back to Zed. "Sorry, my friend is a bit tired."

Zed shrugs and removes the duck tape and gauze Fedor applied earlier from his shoulder and observes his wound. He leans forward and smells it. "My my, what were you bitten by again?"

"A fox?" Fedor replies.

"A radioactive fox?" Says Zed with a suspicions voice.

Fedor and Zed both staring at each other both with suspecting faces. "What's it to you?" Fedor asks.

"I haven't seen a bite like this since a few years back when someone covered in blood ran here begging for help. He looked like a scientist and spit out the same excuse you did," Zed answers.

Fedor looks at Zed with interest. "Did he survive?"

"He did. He and his friends stayed here for a couple of days until Princess Celestia herself made an appearance to pick them all up." Zed picks up small a bottle of antiseptic from the ground, opening it and begins to apply it's fluids with gauze from his pocket.

"I still don't know what does this mean to you, heal me, I pay you, that's it," Fedor says.

"What's your name?" Zed asks.

Fedor didn't answer right away. "Dell."

Zed leans a bit forward. "Have you ever been here before, Dell?"

"No," Fedor answers.

Zed wraps a bandage around Fedor's wound and pins it. "That would be everything. I even helped you before demanding a payment, aren't I nice?"

Fedor pulls out his wallet and gives Zed whatever was left in it. "700 bits, It's all I've got."

"That would do nicely." He takes the money from Fedor.

Vulsegardt gets back up. "Isn't that a bit much? We still need some money to pay the inn if we are going to stay here.

Zed looks at Vulsegardt. "I own this inn."

"Oh, so you're an doctor with no medical license and a inn owner?" Vulsegardt asks with an unfriendly voice.

Fedor jumps in the conversation. "That's enough Vulsegardt."

Vulsegardt sighs and looks back to the shelves with jars as Fedor looks at Zed. "Is there any way me and my friend could stay here for the night?"

"Do you have any more money?" Zed asks.

Fedor scratches his head. "I uhh... No."

"Then we have nothing to talk about." Zed points to the exit of the basement.

Vulsegardt looks back at Zed. "I'd be a shame if someone would find out that illegal medical procedures were being made here."

"Curiosity kills the cat little miss. You may not make it out of town if you don't find the respect for others. Get out." Says Zed while still pointing towards the exit.

"Wait!" Fedor pulls out a small bag from his pocket and from the bag he pulls out one of the crystals he picked up at Ares. "I give you this and we forget about our argument and you let us stay in here for the night. Sounds good?"

Zed looks at the crystal in Fedor's hand with big interest on his face. "My, where did you get that Dell?"

"I'm an engineer. I carry these around all the time," Fedor lies.

Zed takes the crystal from Fedor's hand. "Really now?"

"Yes, it's standard." He explains.

"You must be some high society engineer then. What brings you to the Everfree?" Zed asks.

"As I said, our car broke down." Fedor replies.

Zed looks stares at Fedor with disbelief, but accepts the crystal anyway. "Alright, we're friends for a day, top room on the left of the inn, but you two leave tomorrow."

They leave the basement, Zed goes out of the inn, Fedor and Vulsegardt go upstairs to their room. It was a small room with two beds and a desk with a lit candle on it and a chair in front of the desk.

"Am attitude like that is gonna get you killed," Fedor says to Vulsegardt.

"What do you mean, this man doesn't have a license and is hoarding organs in his basement. He could be a crazed killer!" Vulsegardt says with a quiet voice.

Fedor takes a deep breath. "He isn't a crazy killer and even if he was what would be the point in angering him?"

"How do you now that?" Vulsegardt asks.

"I recognise him. He was arrested on Earth for experimenting on animals with new medication. He served his time in prison and after that he vanished. Had no idea he ended up in Equestria." Fedor explains.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. "Should we call in authorities after we leave?"

"Let's not screw over someone who helped us, you're pretty rude Miss Vulsegardt." Fedor replies.

"We don't know where he got those organs!" Vulsegardt says with worry.

Fedor sighs. "Stop worrying over unimportant things already! He helped us, we leave, end of story."

"The sooner the better." She lifts up the book she was writing in runes from the Marker and another empty book.

Fedor looks at the books that were put on the table. "What are you doing?" He asks.

"Well, I'm sure not leaving this inn until tomorrow, might as well translate these now." She sits down by the desk, pulls out a pen, begins to hum a song and starts to translate the markings she wrote down earlier.

"Alright. I'm just gonna hit the bed." He puts his gear under the bed and lays down. "Good night."

Chapter 6 - On the dirt road

"Wake up. Wake up Miss Vulsegardt."

Vulsegardt fell asleep on the table. She gets up and looks at Fedor. "...What?"

"I brought you something to eat." He puts down a plate with a few pieces of bread and cheese.

"Tastes like it's weeks old, but hey, I was hungry enough..." Fedor smiles.

"Thank you." She takes the plate and takes a bite of the cheese. "Not the most appetizing thing I've eaten."

Fedor chuckles. "So, what do the magical runes say?"

She looks at the book she was writing into the night before. "It's very strange. Certainly not Equestrian and probably not from Earth either."

"What do you mean?" Fedor asks.

Vulsegardt flips around the pages. "It mentions something about the unity of mind, body and spirit."

Fedor smirks. "That's it?"

"These things take time Mister Conhanger, it's difficult to translate them, I don't know who or what created them." Vulsegardt replies.

Fedor looks at her with a confused face. "Then how do you know what they mean?"

"This is my talent. The runes speak to me. Well, the runes and the translating book that covers half of everything. It's like a puzzle that needs to be put together." She explains.

Fedor picks up his belongings. "Well, gather your pieces and quickly eat up. We have to leave. Now."

She looks at Fedor with concern on her face. "Why, what's wrong?"

"Three people who got massacred just came in Zed's. Two of them are already dead," Fedor answers.

"That's horrible." She replies with a small amount of sadness in her voice.

"Especially when Zed found the same substances on them, that were on my bite too."

"You don't think those creatures would come so far, do you?" Vulsegardt asks.

Fedor doesn't answer at first. "I don't know, what if this is more serious than we thought?"

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. "They are just like rabid animals, Hayseed is full of those and everyone avoids Hayseed."

"We should still go," Fedor says.

"Very well." She puts the books into her bag quickly eats the bread and cheese that was offered earlier.

They leave the room and make their way towards the inn's exit. Just when they reach the door, Zed enters and blocks the way out. He was completely covered in blood. "Ah, Dell. Just in time to hear that the third patient died."

"That's...too bad." Fedor says with a sympathetic voice.

"They had similar wounds like you did. Just more severe. Like they were stabbed with a radioactive sword. You were bitten," Zed describes the wounds.

Vulsegardt takes a step forward. "Excuse me Zed, but we are in a hurry."

Zed looks at Vulsegardt. "Of course you are..." He looks at Fedor. "Mind telling me what fox carries around an extra limb in shape of a sword?"

"Bandits?" Fedor quickly answers.

Zed smirks. "There aren't any bandits in Everfree. Everyone shady is in here."

Fedor sighs. "I don't know what you want from me Zed."

"Last time wounds like these were made, Celestia came, took those people and took half the town with her! They were good people, but not as rich as you." Zed says in a slightly angry voice.

"I'm sorry Zed, but I really can't help you." Fedor tries to move around him.

Zed blocks Fedor again. "You're on government business aren't you?" Zed asks.

Vulsegardt speaks up. "That doesn't make it your business."

"Yes, it does! People here need help and I don't know what attacked them. In case someone else got stabbed I want to know how to help them. And you're not telling me what bit you." He looks at Fedor with an upset expression on his face.

"It was a mutated fox Zed. I don't know what it was. Now, let us through," Fedor says.

"That's what you all Canterlot assholes do. You only care for yourselves," Zed spits out an insult.

Vulsegardt again steps into the conversation. "We don't know anything Zed. But we are in a hurry and don't appreciate being interrogated like this."

Zed turns to Vulsegardt. "And where will you be going? Most of the vehicles here are not working since yesterday."

"We will walk." She answers.

"It's at least a three hour walk to the nearest town." Zed replies.

Vulsegardt slightly raises her voice. "Where we are going is none of your concern. Now step aside please."

Zed insulted, steps aside, letting Fedor and Vulsegardt pass. "That thing from years back is responsible for it isn't it? The man who Celestia took, he said that the project that was powering Equestrian machines did all this."

Fedor stops and turns around. "Why would you say that?"

"My brother Ted worked there. He vanished the same day that those people came here, just days before Celestia took the project out of business. No one was allowed in or out of Hayseed and I still haven't seen him ever since," Zed answers.

Fedor frowns. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Zed sighs. "And then news of a terrorist attack. Ted got killed on duty. End of story, no questions answered."

"Where are you going with this?" Vulsegardt asks.

"What caused your wounds?" Zed asks again.

Fedor stares at Zed for a moment then looks down. "Zed... I don't know what it was. All I know is that it wasn't natural. I can't help you, sorry."

Zed sighs and makes a disappointed face. "So it wasn't just a rabid animal?"

"I don't know what it was, but I assure you, we'll let the Government know and they will come here to help. I promise," Fedor promises.

Zed smirks. "I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing." He closes the door as Fedor and Vulsegardt leave.

Fedor turns around and catches up with Vulsegardt. "So, what's the plan?"

"We go for Ponyville. Take a train to Canterlot and tell them what's happening here," Vulsegardt replies. She thinks for a couple of moments. "What if these people were attacked by those monsters from Ares?"

"I don't know, I don't think so..." Fedor doesn't give an answer.

"How can you be sure?" Vulsegardt asks.

"They couldn't have caught up to us in such a short time, could they?" Fedor thinks.

Vulsegardt sighs. "I hope you're right."

They both wait until the big metal door opens and they leave through it. It was noon, but because of the forest around them, the sun could be barely seen through the thick trees. They walked about two hours, both observing the quiet forest around them.

Fedor turns to Vulsegardt. "Hey, Miss runes, why didn't we tell Zed about Ares?"

"I don't trust him. Anyone in that town for that matter," Vulsegardt answers.

Fedor slightly frowns. "He was trying to help those people."

"Most of them are criminals Mister Conhanger. We still don't know if that Zed is a doctor or a crazy butcher," Vulsegardt says.

"He's alright. He did help us after all." Fedor replies.

Vulsegardt smirks. "Yes, and keeps organs on a shelf like he is collecting figurines."

Fedor chuckles. "Organ donors?"

"I'm surprised he didn't turn us into donors," says Vulsegardt with a slight smile.

Fedor smiles. "I knew his brother. Smug person, but smart. Very smart."

As they take a turn they notice a Pegasus laying on the ground with a big cut barely below his neck. Vulsegardt quickly rushes to the Pegasus and examines him. "Oh no, Mister Conhanger, he's not breathing!"

Fedor observes the body from far, then begins to slowly approach them. "You might not want to be th-"

Before Fedor finished the sentence, the Pegasus opens his eyes, growls, quickly gets up and jumps on Vulsegardt, knocking her off. As Fedor begins to quickly approach he feels something pulling his belt. He turns around and notices the man who gave them transport to Everfree pulled Fedor's bag off which contained the expensive crystals he picked up at Ares.

"HEY!" He begins to chase the man as he runs away.

Vulsegardt trying to fend off the Pegasus, she punches him, knocking him away and she begins to crawl backwards. The Pegasus spreads his wings and jumps in Vulsegardt's direction. he lands a bit behind of her, he opens his jaws and sinks his teeth into Vulsegardt's leg. She let's out a scream of pain. As she screams Fedor turns around and begins to run towards her, while taking out his shotgun. He points it at the Pegasus. "Don't force me into spreading more blood on you!"

The Pegasus, ignoring Fedor sinks his teeth deeper and begins to shake his head. Blood begins to rush out of Vulsegardt's leg as she screams even more as tears begin to go down her face. Fedor doesn't think long, he pulls the trigger making a big hole in the Pegasuses head. He rushes towards him and pulls his teeth out of Vulsegardt's leg. "Oh God, are you alright?"

She lets out a cry as Fedor removes the jaw from her leg. "What do you think?!"

Fedor rips one of his sleeves of and wraps it around Vulsegardt's leg. Afterwards he takes a roll of duct tape and wraps that around the improvised bandage. "Bastard was waiting for us, he took all of my crystals."

Vulsegardt still unsettled. "Aah, it burns!"

"Don't worry, it's uh..." He notices small amounts of blood going below the tape he applied. "...Could be worse."

"What was that!?" Vulsegardt screams.

"I don't know! It looked like... Like... Something from Ares. Christ, what have we done..." He thinks for a moment. "Now we really need to get to Canterlot, can you walk?"

"It hurts so much, I... I can't..." Vulsegardt whimpers.

After a moment Fedor gets up and picks up Vulsegardt in a similar way to a piggyback. "I've got your back. Even though you're laying on mine..."

"Is this our fault?" She begins to panic.

Fedor doesn't answer the same moment. "I-I don't know! I mean, I've heard that Everfree had some weird folk, but nothing like this! And I even got robbed too! Like it was staged or something. Bastard was waiting."

Vulsegardt breathing very quickly she says, "Whatever that was, it wasn't a pony! It was a monster!"

Fedor attempts to calm Vulsegardt down, "Calm down, we're gonna figure this out."

Vulsegardt slightly lowers her tone of voice "How?"

"We get out of the forest. Find the first person who can help us, then we go to Canterlot, someone has to answer for this," He answers.

For an hour, Fedor slowly moved along the path in front of them, every few minutes growls and animal noises were heard in the distance, making both Fedor and Vulsegardt nervous. They finally get out of the forest, or at least an area which wasn't festered with trees that blocked the sun.

Vulsegardt looks around and points. "Mister Conhanger look! A cottage!"

Fedor slowly moves himself and Vulsegardt towards the cottage through something that looked like a chicken pen, but was laying in pieces. As they near the cottage they notice a big hole in the wall.

Fedor looks from the side. "Damn, what went through here, a car?"

"I don't think there is much traffic here," Vulsegardt says.

Fedor smirks. "You don't say?"

He moves to the front door where there was a note nailed to it. Vulsegardt looks closely and begins to read. "Dear friends, I have decided I can no longer stay here, several of my critters went missing and I'm to afraid to go to Everfree ever since these strange animals appeared. I've tried talking to them, but they are to aggressive and they even attacked the chickens. My decision is final. I'm taking my critters and going with Pinkie and the Cakes to the Crystal Empire until further notice, I hope you understand. With love, Fluttershy."

"Does this mean anything to you?" Fedor asks.

"No. But whoever wrote it can't help us now, they probably left a few hours ago." She answers.

Something begins to slowly crawl out of the hole in the cottage. It was a human. Or at least, what remained of it, it had no body from the waste down, intestines following it as it crawls towards Fedor.

Fedor noticing the corpse slowly begins to walk backwards.

Vulsegardt begins to panic. "Get us away!"

He turns around and begins to slowly walk away, even with Vulsegardt on his back he was able to be faster than the creature.

They follow a dirt road. Vulsegardt still infused with fear. "Mister Conhanger?"

"Yeah?" Fedor looks slightly up.

"Is this our fault?" She asks.

He didn't answer.

"Is it?" She asks again.

Fedor changes the topic. "Can you walk on your own? My back is killing me."

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. "I can try..."

Fedor puts her down on the ground, after that she tries to make a few steps. She limps. "I'll make it."

Fedor cringes as he looks at Vulsegardt's leg. "Yeah, no. The first house we find we ask for help. I don't know where this pony village hospital is and your leg is looking pretty bad," He says.

She gives back an optimistic look on her face. "It's not that bad."

He looks back with a smug expression. "Wish you had Zed here huh?"

Vulsegardt smirks. "I'd rather keep my leg."

He chuckles. "Alright, let's keep moving"

The walk on a dirt road lasted for half an hour passing through paths that lead to the forest, but they declined those paths and followed the one that avoided the forest. On some point in the distance they see a bright blue light that was a straight line across a field. Fedor waits for Vulsegardt to catch up and points towards the light. "Look Miss Vulsegardt! I think that that is an electric fence over there. Whoever lives there is probably well protected."

Vulsegardt limps next to Fedor and looks at the direction he was pointing in. She smiles. "So, that's where we are going?"

"Looks like it. Can you make it?" He asks with slight worry.

"Yes, I'll be fine." She replies.

Fedor relieved says, "Good. Come on."

They walk in a straight line, that led outside of the dirt path towards the blue light. They come to a large number of cylinders in a pattern of two standing cylinders, between those two were three horizontally positioned cylinders, all fused with electricity.

Fedor steps closer and examines the cylinders. "I was right. Fence. Pretty expensive one too. Probably our safest bet on sanctuary." He looks through the cylinders. "I see alot of trees and a corn field in the distance. Probably a farm."

"We should find and entrance then, ask the ponies living here if they are kind enough to let us stay." Vulsegardt suggests.

They begin to walk parallel with the fence, on one point they notice a yellow earth pony staring at them from the other side of the fence. Vulsegardt notices the spectator and moves closer. "Uhh, hello there, we could you use some help if you can please?"

The earth pony runs away.

Fedor raises his voice. "Hey wait, hey! Damn. She probably got scared of all that blood on your body."

Vulsegardt looks at herself and notices she is covered in the blood of the creature that bit her. "I suppose that's good enough of a reason."

They keep walking along with the fence until reaching a locked gate. Fedor begins to knock on the gate. "Hello? Would someone kindly open this door please?" He keeps hitting the gate.

Vulsegardt turns around and notices a small group of bloody creatures approaching them from the forest. She quickly stops Fedor from knocking. "Stop! You're attracting monsters!"

He looks behind him and notices three creatures approaching. Two Earth Ponies and a Human. All missing some body parts and covered in blood. Fedor quickly pulls out his shotgun, aims and pulls the trigger, but nothing happens, the gun was empty. The monsters begin to scream as they charge towards Fedor and Vulsegardt. Vulsegardt panicky, hides behind Fedor, as he uses the shotgun in his hand as a rod to punch the creatures, knocking them off their feet. But the earth pony creature doesn't fall down, instead it jumps up and knocks him down instead. It quickly attempts to bite Fedor's neck, as Fedor is barely holding the creature from away. Vulsegardt ineffectively tries to fend off the creature by hitting it with the shotgun with her magic. The human creature charges at Vulsegardt, she jumps back and closes her eyes, expecting the worst.

She hears five loud noises, similar to a shotgun fire. She opens her eyes to notice the creature that was charging at her was laying on the ground with severed legs, still alive crawling towards her. She looks at Fedor noticing that the creature on top of him has no head and the third creature missing most of its chest. The three monsters were still very much alive and angry. She turns to the gate noticing it was opened by two earth Ponies who had gear similar to a saddle on them, with shotguns attached to their right side. One Pony runs to Vulsegardt and helps her get up, while the other shoots the creatures a couple more times before helping Fedor up. They both drag Vulsegardt and Fedor behind the bars as the yellow Pony who was observing them earlier quickly pulls the lever on closing the door. The creatures get to the door and begin to hit and scratch on them but the door stays undamaged.

The mare who closed the door quickly runs to Fedor and snatches his shotgun before he was able to get up. she brings drops it in front of the older mare. "That's all they got."

The older mare looks at the shotgun and back at her. "Good thing you let us now, these two could have gotten killed."

"What do we do with them?" The younger mare asked.

"Leave that to your bother and me. Go in the house and wait there." She replies.

The pony frowns and leaves. Fedor gets up and shakes his head. He quickly steps to Vulsegardt and helps her up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alive." She looks at the two ponies who saved her. "Oh, thank you so much!"

The mare steps to Vulsegardt and notices her injured leg. "What in tarnation happened to you?"

"We got attacked in the Everfree forest," Vulsegardt replies.

"Why in the hay would y'all be wandering over there? Haven't you heard what happened yesterday?" The mare asks.

Vulsegardt looks that mare with worry in her mind. "What did happen yesterday?"

"A dozen ponies got sent to the hospital yesterday, some violent creatures came from the Everfree attacking ponies around Ponyville. Many got scared and left town. Can't say I blame them." She steps closer and inspects Vulsegardt's improvised bandage. "What featherbrain would use duct tape to treat something like this?"

Fedor steps closer and raises his arm. "That would be me. It helped in stopping the bleeding."

The mare looks at Fedor. "Oh, sorry. I guess it's a good temporary solution."

"None taken. You did save us," He replies. We've been looking for help and a place to stay, we thought if you were kind enough to offer sanctuary? You have a very powerful fence protecting your property."

"I suppose you can stay for the night. Going to the hospital at this time isn't a very good idea considering all of these things roaming around," She agrees.

Fedor smiles. "Thank you, we appreciate it. I'm Fedor and this is Vulsegardt."

"Howdy Fedor." She points to the pony besides her. "This is my brother Big Macintosh and the little Pony who closed the door is Applebloom. Name's Applejack, welcome to Sweet Apple Acres."

Chapter 7 - Sweet Apple Acres

They were in the living room of the farm behind the electric fence. The mare who saved Vulsegardt's life was wrapping a fresh bandage around her wound. While her wound was taken care of, Vulsegardt observed the room she is in. "Your home is very nice."

Applejack smiles. "Why thank you, it's even more comfortable knowing we have that fence keeping us safe at night."

"Thanks for letting us stay," Fedor jumps into the conversation.

"You're welcome. It ain't safe out there, least not yet," Applejack replies kindly.

"Yeah, about that, what exactly happened around here?" Fedor asks with interest.

Applejack looks at Fedor with a confused face, "Y'all don't know what happened here?"

"Not really. We stayed in the Evefree camp. We left a day later after some people came bleeding into town," Fedor replied.

Applejack sighs. "Well, there is a large area used for picnics and events outside of Ponyville walls. A group of them biters came out of Everfree and just... murdered so many people and ponies. Everypony is either hiding behind Ponyville walls or left to the Crystal Empire. Everything that isn't behind its walls is abandoned. So I hate to break it to ya but, the hospital ain't working."

Vulsegardt joins the conversation, "Did they attack the hospital too?"

Applejack looks at Vulsegardt, "Yeah. Whatever staff and patients were left were moved behind walls a couple of hours ago." She finishes putting the bandage on Vulsegardt's wound, "Well, I reckon that oughta do it."

Vulsegardt feels less pain coming from her wound. She smiles in relief. "Thank you again for helping us, we really appreciate it."

"You're welcome. You can stay upstairs in the guest room for as long as you need. That room isn't used much anymore," Applejack replies with a slight grin on her face.

"How come?" Fedor asks.

Applejack looks at Fedor with a frown on her face. "It used to be the room of our Granny Smith. She passed away last year, so that room is the guest room now."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... You know," Fedor apologizes.

Applejack sighs "It's alright, no use in moping, right Big Mac?" She looks at her older brother.

He stayed silent for a short moment, "Eyup."

Vulsegardt gets up, limps to her bag and picks it up. "Well, we troubled you enough, we'll leave you to your doings and go upstairs to get some rest, we all need it."

"Alright, if you need anything let me know. The guest room is the first one on the right," Applejack points at the staircase.

Vulsegardt nods and along with Fedor they go upstairs and settle down in the guest room. It had one bed, a closet, a sofa and a table with a chair.

As they get into the room Vulsegardt closes the door and looks at Fedor, "This is our fault isn't it?"

Fedor stays silent for a moment. "Could be anything..."

"No it can't, these creatures are the same as the ones that attacked us at Ares!" She slightly raises her voice.

Fedor sits down on the sofa. "But...How? How could they have gotten here so fast?"

Vulsegardt thinks. "Maybe it's not the monsters. Maybe it was the artifact? Turning everypony mad?"

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt with confusion, "How? We haven't turned and everyone at Everfree and here didn't turn either. Where is the catch?"

Vulsegardt becomes upset. "Look, I don't know! But how can I sleep knowing that we spread some sort of virus around that took several lives? How can you?" She sits on the ground.

Fedor looks at her with empathy. "Look, we didn't know that this could happen. Atlax and Celestia are to blame, not us. Just try to calm down, we're gonna figure this out."

Vulsegardt sighs and gets up. "I should at least translate these runes before we get to Canterlot. Maybe they will help us in stopping this." She sits on the chair next to the table, puts the two books from her bag on the table and begins to observe what she has written in Ares.

Fedor gets up and steps to her. "Haven't you done this yesterday? Shouldn't you get some, you know...Sleep?"

She begins to write translations in the other book. "I have to finish first. I'll be fine."

Fedor turns around, walks to the sofa and sits down. He removes his coat and throws it on top of the closet "Suit yourself. Will we be leaving first thing tomorrow then?"

"After I'm done," She replies.

Fedor leans back and closes his eyes. He was exhausted and needed a rest. After a little while he felt that something was dripping on his head. He opens his eyes to notice blood dripping from the ceiling on him. He looks forward to warn Vulsegardt only to notice that he wasn't in the place he went to sleep to. The only thing he recognised was the sofa he was sitting on, the floor was flooded with water, the rest looked like a small dark room with a wooden door radiating light from it. "Miss Vulsegardt?" He gets up, walks to the door and opens it. He peeks out of the door and realizes he was back in Ares. But everything seemed much more cleaner and brighter than it did when he and Vulsegardt were there. He walks around for a moment until he sees the Marker in the distance. It seemed inactive and had multiple wires attached to it.

Suddenly a mist of blood blinds Fedor for a moment. He cleans his goggles to see that the Marker was surrounded by multiple people and changelings all holding weapons. They seemed to be holding someone of Ares staff hostage. One of the changelings that seemed to have armour resembling a person with higher authority steps forward and begins to scream. "Move your forces out Atlax, you can't hide this forever! Or else..." He points to the man who was in hostage, but he was behind two soldiers out of Fedor's sight. "We kill Altman, I swear we will!" Fedor looks up to the observation deck and notices Ryan Atlax along with multiple soldiers behind him looking down on the armed group.

Atlax steps to a microphone and begins to speak, "You're bringing your kind much shame with this, I'm sure that your Queen or Darek haven't ordered this!

The Changeling looks up and begins to shout, "She is blind! And so are you and Celestia!"

As the conversation goes on, Fedor notices that the Marker behind the supposed hostage begins to faintly glow. Fedor tries to get a better look of things when suddenly everything begins to move in a very fast manner similar to a movie being fast forwarded. It stops when everything was dark, multiple corpses were on the ground. He looks at the Marker, it was still inactive. Fedor relieved, he calms down a bit and begins to observe his surroundings. He notices a man standing in front of the Marker. He was whispering in the same language that Vulsegardt was speaking in right before the Marker came to life. Scared, Fedor quickly begins to rush to the man. "Hey you! Stop! You're gonna kill us all!" As he runs towards the unknown man his head begins to hurt inside, the feeling like hundreds of ants were crawling on his brain, biting him.

He falls down and begins to scream. The unknown person, still chanting to the Marker, he screams and the Marker lights up and let's out a loud sound similar to the one Vulsegardt summoned. As Fedor screams, Fedor notices the corpses laying in the room begin to twitch, as unnatural bones begin to grow from their limbs, group of dozen creatures get up and let's out a scream that made the Marker light up even more, letting out another wave of force. Fedor crawls towards the unknown enchanter and grabs him by his leg. "You son of a bitch..." Fedor begins to cough, noticing that blood is rushing down from his nose and mouth. He faints and falls down.

Fedor opens his eyes, realizing that he was dreaming. He looks around and sees that he fell asleep on the sofa at Sweet Apple Acres. He looks through the window and it seemed to be morning.

Vulsegardt was standing next to the sofa, looking at Fedor with a great deal of concern on her face. "Oh, you're awake! Thank the Goddess you're alright!"

Slowly, Fedor turns to Vulsegardt. "Wh... What happened?"

"Well, you were talking in your sleep and began to scream not too long ago," Vulsegardt replies.

Applejack standing on the other side of the sofa joins in the conversation, "You also started to bleed on my sofa, what the hay is going on with you two?"

Fedor realizing he was bleeding outside of his dream wipes the blood from his nose. He looks at Applejack. "I, uh, I had a bad dream, that's all."

Applejack looks at Fedor suspiciously. "A bad dream? Dreams don't make you bleed like that."

Vulsegardt steps closer and wipes the blood off of Fedor's hand with a napkin with the aid from her magic, "What did you see?" She asks.

Fedor thinks for a moment and looks at Applejack. "Could we get some privacy?"

Applejack nods and turns around but doesn't leave yet. "Should I be worried?"

Fedor frowns, "I hope not."

Applejack sighs and leaves the room. Fedor turns to Vulsegardt. "Miss Vulsegardt, I think we have a major problem..."

She looks with worry on her face. "What's wrong, what did you see?"

"Ares, someone spoke in a strange language, activating the Marker, similar what you did." Fedor replies.

"What are you saying?" Vulsegardt asks with an afraid voice.

Fedor looks with uncertainty. "I uh, think we may have started this."

Vulsegardt changes her mind to what she was saying before. "How can you know that?" she asks with disbelief.

Fedor thinks for a moment. "It all makes sense now... Monsters appearing just after we were there, just after we activated the Marker?" He asks.

"How could they have spread out so far, they didn't seem very intelligent!" She answers in a raised voice.

"Maybe the force that came from the Marker infected everybody, somehow..." Fedor speculates.

"If that was to be true then why are the monsters only in the woods? Me, you, Applejack, Zed, they didn't seem affected." Vulsegardt answers with a question.

Suddenly a flash of memory appears in Fedor's eyes. The same from his dream, but only the part where the the corpses came to life. He let's out a short cry of pain, followed by a serious look on his face. "The dead," He says.

"What?" Vulsegardt asks with a mix of curiosity and worry in her voice.

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt. "What if it only affects the dead?"

Vulsegardt stays silent.

"It makes sense doesn't it? Dead bodies from Ares? The dismembered body by the cottage outside of Everfree?" Fedor asks.

Vulsegardt takes a deep breath to calm down. "I don't want to think about that right now."

Fedor nods and gets up. "Best not to... When are we leaving?"

"Well, I'm mostly done with translating the runes. Mostly... I still need an hour or two," Vulsegardt answers.

Fedor steps to the table where Vulsegardt was translating and observes the book. "And what does it say?"

Vulsegardt smirks. "It makes almost no sense. Says something about converging minds, brother moons and suicide. I can't make much out of this nonsense to be honest," She answers.

Fedor looks at the writing closely. "Simple. We find someone who does."

"I suppose. The sooner we end this nightmare the better. I'll get to translating, you go do, whatever it is you can do on a farm." Vulsegardt sits down at the table and begins to translate her text.

Fedor smirks and leaves the room. He goes downstairs to the living room, where he notices Applejack's younger sister, reading a book while sitting on the sofa. He observes her for a moment, before deciding to sit down on the chair next to the sofa. "Hey there." He slowly raises his hand, "I'm Fedor."

She looks from her book to Fedor, "I'm Applebloom."

Fedor leans forward, trying to get a look on the book. "Hey there Applebloom, whatcha reading?"

"Alchemy," Applebloom answers shortly.

"Alchemy? You aren't making Methamphetamine are you?" Fedor chuckles.

Applebloom looks at Fedor with confusion. "What's Methamphetamine?"

Fedor stays silent for a moment. After a quick thought he attempts to change the topic, "I'm more of an engineering type myself."

"That's pretty nice. Have you built anything that doesn't exist yet?" Applebloom asks.

"Yeah, but the Government doesn't let me talk about it," Fedor chuckles again.

Applebloom looks with interest. "You work for the Government? Do you know Princess Twilight?"

"No, but I know Princess Cadence, if you're making a contest out of it. I work for her, kinda... That probably counts as Government." Fedor thinks for a moment.

Applebloom closes the book on the table and turns to Fedor. "Whoa, that's so cool! You two live in the Crystal Empire with her?"

"Just me, Miss Vulsegardt lives in Canterlot," Fedor answers.

"What were you two doing in the Evefree then? Usually you wouldn't meet somepony from Canterlot in Everfree." Applebloom asks with confusion in her voice.

"Well..." Fedor thinks for a moment. "We were sent on an expedition. But we had to turn back because of these feral creatures."

Applebloom moves closer to Fedor on the couch. "An expedition on what?"

Fedor smirks. "Gee, you sure ask alot of questions."

Applebloom frowns. "Yeah...Sorry." She turns back to her book and opens it.

Fedor also frowns, "I meant no offence though."

"None taken," She replies with a somewhat positive voice.

Fedor sighs and gets up. He makes his way out of the house and walks around the property. He comes over a bench near the electric fence with a guitar on it. He sits down, looks around to make sure nobody is near and picks up the guitar. He begins to play it. He played country tunes and relaxed while he played. He stopped when he noticed the corpse from the cottage he and Vulsegardt found when they left the forest. "Damn, that thing followed us here?" Fedor begins to think. "We need to give these things a proper name." He stares at the creature as it attempts to pass the gate, only to be electrocuted do its death, splattering blood around itself. Fedor sighs and puts the guitar back on the table. He began to think about the dream he had the night before. "You can't hide it Atlax." .

A few minutes later Applejack comes by with a basket full of apples on her side. She looks at the fried corpse and cringes, then looks at Fedor. "Can't wait til all of this gets sorted out."

"Yeah," Fedor answers.

Applejack puts the basket down and sits next to Fedor. "The sooner the better too. It feels like we're to afraid to go to our own town. The Government will probably fix this in a few days, right?"

Fedor smirks. "Who's to say that the Government isn't responsible for this?"

"Neh, I'd say it's some bad magic coming from that Everfree Camp. Everypony there is strange," Applejack answers after thinking for a moment.

"Yeah, I wish," Fedor replies with disbelief.

"You think there's somethin else?" Applejack asks with curiosity.

Fedor doesn't answer at first. "I don't know. Guess we'll hear it in the news."

Applejack nods. "Ah guess you're right. I'm just worried, you know? You almost got killed out there. I don't want that happening to my family," She says.

Fedor smiles. "Heh, family is all that matters."

"Is your family safe?" Applejack asks.

Fedor frowns. "My family? Prince Armor and Princess Cadence are my family."

"What about your real family?" Applejack changes her question.

"Most of them are gone. I don't keep in touch with the rest," Fedor answers.

Applejack also frowns. "I'm sorry to hear that. Come on. Let's go inside and get somethin to eat."

Fedor smiles. "You're almost to kind."

Applejack jumps off the bench and begins to walk back towards the farmhouse. "Don't mention it."

Fedor looks back at the dead creature and stares at it for a few seconds before getting up and following Applejack.

Ten minutes later Applejack opens the door to her home. She looks at Fedor, "Call Vulsegardt, lunch will be on the table soon."

Fedor nods and makes his way up the staircase. He opens the guest room door to see Vulsegardt laying on the table sleeping next to her books. He smirks and steps to her to wake her up. But he stays silent. He stares at the translations which Vulsegardt made. He thinks for a minute then quietly grabs both books, steps away from the table and hides them under the bed. He whispers to himself, "Probably for the best, we can come back for these anyways." He steps back to Vulsegardt and begins to gently shake her shoulder in attempt to wake her up. "Hey, miss runes? Lunch is ready, wake up."

Vulsegardt wakes up and shakes her head. "Did I fall asleep on the table?"

Fedor smiles. "You really like doing that don't you?"

Vulsegardt stands up and walks out of the room. "It's a bad habit."

Fedor before leaving the room turns back and looks towards the bed, where the books were hidden. He could faintly hear multiple voices. "You can't hide it Atlax... Altman...We will kill Altman..." These voices begin to speak louder and louder, one began speaking in a language Fedor couldn't understand. He looks at the bed with anger, turns around and slams the door. He walks down the stairs and enters the supposed dining room where there was a table with everyone sitting by it. He sits down next to Vulsegardt.

Big Macintosh looks at Fedor across the table. "Why did you slam the door?"

Fedor looks back at him. "Sorry, I uh, left the window open. It was the draft."

Applejack brings a pot of soup to the table where the whole group began to eat and talk while eating. After the soup Applejack brought several apple related deserts which Fedor and Vulsegardt ate many.

After lunch Vulsegardt helped Applejack in cleaning the dining room while Fedor stayed on the seat, staring at the table, thinking. After the dining room was cleaned Vulsegardt sits down next to Fedor and looks at him. "What's the matter with you? You seem like you're not going to make jokes any time soon."

Fedor sighs and turns to Vulsegardt. "We should go."

Vulsegardt frowns and nods at the same time, "Let me grab my stuff then."

Fedor quickly gets up and begins to walk out of the dining room. "I'll go up for my stuff and I'll grab your bag by the way." He returns to the guest room grabbing his belongings and Vulsegardt's bag. He looks at the bed, thinking for a moment, but shakes his head and leaves the room. He goes down and hands the bag to Vulsegardt. "Here you go."

"Thank you," Vulsegardt replies and puts the bag on her side. She turns to Applejack. "Thank you so much for having us, you saved our lives and let us in for the night."

"Ah, don't worry. Couldn't have let you two out there to die now could I?" Applejack smiles.

Fedor joins the conversation. "We really appreciate it, we owe you one."

Applejack turns to Fedor. "Who knows, maybe I'll need your help one day."

Fedor and Vulsegardt both smile and begin to make their way out of the house. Along with Applejack they walk down the dirt road towards the gate of the fence.

While walking Fedor notices Applebloom in the distance waving to him. He waves back and smiles.

They reach the gate, where Big Macintosh was waiting. He approaches Fedor and hands him his shotgun. "Pretty nice gun. You in the army?"

Fedor takes the shotgun. "I was in the army."

Big Macintosh gives Fedor a look of approval. "It was empty. I filled it for y'all in case you run into any more of those biters. Haven't seen any in a hour though. You should hurry to the train station."

Fedor shakes the shotgun to check it's weight. "Yeah, with haste too. Thanks for the ammo, I appreciate it."

Big Macintosh nods and heads to the controls for the gate. He types in a password in a small keyboard and the gate opens. Fedor and Vulsegardt look at each other, both with some doubt in their faces but still make their way out.

Applejack raises her voice, "Stay safe!"

Vulsegardt turns around and waves, "We will, thank you!"

Fedor also turns around. "Thanks for everything, have a good one!"

They both keep walking until Sweet Apple Acres leaves their field of vision. Vulsegardt turns to Fedor and smiles. "Back on the dirt road huh?"

Fedor turns back. "How is your leg?"

"Better. Much better," Vulsegardt replies. She kept looking at Fedor with worry. "Are you alright, you don't seem fine."

"We have to get to Canterlot as fast as possible," Fedor doesn't answer the question.

Vulsegardt stops, letting Fedor make a few steps forward. "It's that dream you had isn't it?"

Fedor doesn't answer. He turns around and sighs. "Would you kindly not stop walking? You know this place isn't safe outside of the Apple's fence."

"You know you can trust me right?" Vulsegardt begins to trot again.

"On the train. It's just not safe outside anymore," He answers.

Chapter 8 - Back Home

Not a single word was spoken. They both rushed down the dirt road while listening to moaning and similar voices coming from the woods nearby.

"Fedor wait!" Vulsegardt saying while still limping but trying to catch up to him.

Fedor stops and turns around. "What happened to Mister Conhanger?"

Vulsegardt didn't answer right away. "To get your attention. I can't go as fast as you."

Fedor sighs. "Look, we need to get to the train station."

"I understand that, but please slow down, it's not like the train won't ever come back." Vulsegardt attempts at helping her situation.

"Fine." Fedor slows down to wait for Vulsegardt.

After a short walk with no words, Vulsegardt turns to Fedor. "We are friends aren't we?"

Fedor puts on a faint smile. "I suppose we are."

"Then tell me what's bothering you. You saw something in that dream, I know you did." Vulsegardt says with suspicion.

Before Fedor could answer the question both he and Vulsegardt notice a dozen bodies with bullet holes in them on the ground. They stop and look up to notice people with automated weapons shooting at several creatures that were running from the woods. Vulsegardt steps behind Fedor and examines the armed people. They seemed like soldiers with purple armour on. She figures that they are the Royal Guard around these parts. "Fedor look, Royal Guards! If we help them they can help us in getting on the train!" Vulsegardt states.

Fedor nods and reaches for his shotgun, but is interrupted by a small creature that jumped on his back. The creature resembled a small human child with extended fingers shaping into bone like claws covered in blood. The creature begins to scratch on Fedor's back, he cries out of pain, grabs the creature by it's head and throws it ahead of himself. Vulsegardt quickly levitates the shotgun from Fedor's back, points it at the grounded creature and pulls the trigger. She hits the creatures neck, spilling blood on the ground. The creature after a short squeal stops moving.

Vulsegardt quickly rushes to Fedor. "Oh Goddess, are you alright?"

Fedor moans and checks his back for any injuries. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a scratch. I'm wearing a pad on my shoulder so I'm lucky." He rips off the left side of his shirt and protection pad, revealing a few scrapes with a small amount of blood coming from his shoulder.

Suddenly, Vulsegardt feels that something has just missed her head. Her hearing becomes faint and her head begins to hurt for a little while. She notices that one of the guard has shot at her direction.

A group of two Humans and one Earth pony run towards Fedor and Vulsegardt. One steps forward. "Damn Caramel, you could have killed pedestrians! Sorry about that, but it looks like you two handled yourself pretty well back there."

Fedor still checking his back. "Yeah, thanks for not killing us. Could you point us to the train station? We kinda want to, you know, get the hell out of here?" He asks.

The Guard smirks. "Everyone wants to leave. We're going there right now, we can show you where it is. What are you even doing here outside of walls?"

Vulsegardt jumps in the conversation. "We were travelling. We were staying at Everfree camp when all this happened."

"Everfree camp?" The Guard says with surprise. "Lucky you two got out of there. That place is about to be overrun, the order to evacuate has already been issued."

"But they have walls too, don't they?" Fedor asks.

"With walls like those? No thanks, I'd leave." The Guard answers. "Come on, let's move, the next train is I think in half an hour."

Fedor and Vulsegard follow the Guards towards the train station. The train station was surrounded by several more Guards.

"Why are there so many Guards here?" Vulsegardt asks.

The Earth Pony guard turns to Vulsegardt. "Only two things in Ponyville aren't behind walls. The hospital and the train station. The hospital was attacked by a mob of these biters while the train station wasn't. So to avoid losing the train station the Princess here issued that it must be protected so that the trains can still safely operate."

Fedor exhales with relief. "Good." He looks at Vulsegardt. "I don't know how else we could get to Canterlot if there was no train."

The Guards lead Vulsegardt and Fedor to the train station where they sat down on some benches. The Earth Pony guard again turns to them. "Tickets are free during whatever this is. Have a nice trip." He goes away, presumably to his post.

"How nice of them to give us a free ride." Vulsegardt smiles.

"The undead is killing the living, the Government better give me a free ride." Fedor states. "I just hope they won't mind me bringing weapons onboard."

"Do you really think it's the undead?" Vulsegardt looks at Fedor with worry.

"In my dream... I saw corpses. And some madman activating the Marker. Just then the creatures revived." Fedor answers.

"Is that it? That's been bugging you?" Vulsegardt asks.

Fedor thinks for a moment. "I've seen how the changelings attacked Ares. They had hostages and accused Atlax of hiding something. When we get to Canterlot we have to go to Celestia not Atlax."

Vulsegardt cringes. "But Atlax said that I have to go to him and nopony else."

"I think this is a case of national security and Celestia was smart enough to shut this down once. I'm pretty sure she'd do it again." Fedor replies.

Vulsegardt looks on the ground. "He said it was strict EarthGov business.

"But we aren't on Earth. And people died. After what I've seen I'd rather go to Celestia. Besides, she'd find out eventually." Fedor speculates.

Vulsegardt sighs. "I guess that's true. I just hope I won't get into to much trouble."

"The letter said abandoned research facility, not infested facility. Hell, we can probably sue." Fedor smiles on that thought.

Vulsegardt faintly smiles and looks towards Fedor's direction. On Fedor's shoulder she notices something else than cuts. She leans closer and with her magic rips off the already torn pieces of his shirt. "Why do you have the number twelve branded on your shoulder?"

Fedor slowly puts his hand on his shoulder, feeling the said number. He begins to think with a slightly confused face.

"Where did you get it?" Vulsegardt asks.

"The army. At some point..." Fedor answers.

"Do you even know?" Vulsegardt examines the brand. "This surely didn't feel good when you received it."

Fedor slightly raises his voice. "In the army. I just forgot who exactly was the bastard who gave it to me."

Vulsegardt slightly backs off. For a few minutes she observes her surroundings. With nothing interesting to see, she turns to Fedor again. "Did you get those goggles in the army too?"

Fedor with a slightly more friendly face turns to Vulsegardt. "No, but it is the reason I'm not in the army anymore."

"What do you mean?" Vulsegardt asks.

Fedor takes a deep breath. "Well, I was maintaining a sentry defence one day when one of the darn things malfunctioned. Being in the desert and all, I knew it was best to try to fix the problem there. My eyes got hit by a flash of light so hard it damaged my vision. Next week I was off to be sent home. Heh, that's when I found the Holder crystal. Our truck lost all gas and we were forced to spread out. Due to my vision I was able to fall into a crevice. There I found the Holder. Put one in my pocket and a day later I was sitting on a plane going back home. It wasn't until a month or two later when my vision began to return, that I was able to use the holder. I was playing around with it to notice that it could hold so much electrical power it could power machines. That's the story on how bigger passages came to life between Earth and Equestria. Apparently you can't "play" around with that much electricity at once without some neighbour calling the police. As luck had it the Holder fell to Celestia and so did I."

"Wow. Quite the story" Vulsegardt says with an impressed voice. "After all this time, surely you can take those off can't you?"

"I can. But strong lights still bother me. Well, that was alot about me, what about you? You some high society Canterlot book writer?" Fedor asks while smiling.

"Hardly. I work with the history department. Runes, translations, old knowledge, you know, the things that should not be forgotten." Vulsegardt answers.

Fedor smirks. "I'm sure as hell I won't forget what happened in the last couple of days."

From the distance an arriving train could be seen. After a couple of minutes it stops at Ponyville station. Being the only two waiting at the station Fedor and Vulsegardt presumed that the train would be leaving shortly. Vulsegardt steps on board first. She is greeted by the train conductor. Fedor following is stopped. The train conductor approaches Fedor and extends his arm. "I'm gonna need that gun boy."

"Boy?" Fedor says with a surprised voice.

Vulsegardt turns around and joins the conversation. "Fedor, give the man the gun. Please."

The conductor explains his situation. "You'll get it back son. Given the circumstances, it's only the best idea to be carrying a weapon. But we have children on board, we don't want to frighten them."

Fedor hands over his shotgun. "Don't worry, I haven't shot a child in months."

The Conductor stares at Fedor with an unamused face. "Funny." He takes the shotgun and closes the train cart door. "Where will you leave the train?"

"Canterlot, if we may." Vulsegardt answers.

"Of course. Take a seat and enjoy the ride." He looks at Fedor. "This is your shotgun, isn't it son?"

Fedor looks at the Conductor. "Yes."

The Conductor shakes his head and leaves.

Fedor along with Vulsegardt sit down at the first seat they come across that was available. Though most of them were empty.

Vulsegardt turns around and examines the train cart. She sees three Humans and two ponies sitting in the cart along with them. "This train is pretty empty."

"That's to be expected. People probably hiding in their homes." Fedor replies.

The train begins to move. For the first twenty minutes nobody said anything. Vulsegardt was staring out the window and Fedor was staring on the other side of the cart. After a little while, Fedor leans towards Vulsegardt and begins to whisper. "There's this weird Zebra that has been staring at us ever since we got on."

"What Zebra?" Vulsegardt turns around and indeed does notice somebody she missed when she entered the cart. The Zebra looks away as Vulsegardt looks at him. "I've seen him before."

"Do you know who he is?" Fedor asks.

"Yes, I met him at the Crystal Empire on the day I've come to hire you." Vulsegardt answers.

"That's Xuri. Atlax's right hand." Fedor explains.

"And what does that mean?" Vulsegardt asks.

"It means we have to hurry to Celestia when we get to Canterlot. He's gonna call on us, I'm sure of it." Fedor answers.

"You're saying like he is a villain." Vulsegardt turns around and begins to wave to Xuri.

He doesn't respond.

"Stop that." Fedor says.

Vulsegardt stops waving and turns around. "He seemed friendlier at the Crystal Empire.

Fedor sighs and looks through the window.

"That's not necessary Fedor." Vulsegardt says as she joins in looking through the window.

"You can't say I'm wrong when I say that there is something way off here." Fedor replies.

"The dead are walking. I'd say that there is something foul here." Vulsegardt answers.

"Yeah, but the Government has something to do with it." Fedor states.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. "Perhaps. But they are the only ones who can help us now. My translations will come in handy." Vulsegardt puts her bag on the table and opens it. In shock, she widely opens her eyes and looks at Fedor. "Fedor, we forgot the books at Sweet Apple Acres!"

Fedor looks at Vulsegardt with fake surprise. "That's too bad. But why do the books matter anyways? You don't think Atlax or Celestia don't have everything translated already?

"I think Celestia destroyed all the translations and records." Vulsegardt answers.

"All the more reason to get to her first. You have the letter that Atlax gave you, we should give that to Celestia." Fedor says with a quiet voice, minding the fact that Xuri is watching them.

Vulsegardt frowns. "I don't like this."

Fedor again looks through the window. "Me neither. But I don't trust them. And neither should you."

After a few hours Vulsegardt opens her eyes. She realizes that she fell asleep during the ride. Fedor was shaking her shoulder. "Hey I've got my gun from the old man let's go."

Vulsegardt shakes her head. "We're at Canterlot already?"

"Yeah, that Zebra went off the train. We have to beat him to the city." Fedor quickly says.

Vulsegardt gets up and along with Fedor they begin to make their way off the train and into the city. They quickly walk along the path towards the Canterlot castle. They are stopped by a group of Guards. "Stop, no access in the castle unless given proper authorization."

Vulsegardt with her magic pulls out a small card with a picture of her face on it. "I work here. I need to speak to the Princess."

A Guard steps forward. "With what cause?" The guard asks.

Vulsegardt quickly begins to think. "I, uhm, brought her this man. He has something to say that only the Princess can hear. It's very important. And classified." She smiles in attempt to fool the guards.

The guards look at her suspiciously. An Unicorn guard steps out of the group. "Hi Vulsegardt!" He seemed more physically weaker than the rest of the guards.

Vulsegardt recognizes the guard "Oh, hey Local. Any chance you can let me and my friend through, its important."

"Of course! Come on guys, let's make way. You'll have to give up your weapons though. No weapons around the castle premises, unless you're with the guard" He raises his hoof and the group let's Fedor and Vulsegardt pass. Before leaving the Unicorn levitates the shotgun off Fedor's back.

"Thanks Local, I owe you!" she begins to lead Fedor towards the castle entrance.

"You're welcome!" The Unicorn shouts back.

"You know that guy?" Fedor asks.

"I work here, I know most guards. But helped Local with his studies back in the day, so he owes me. Come on, this way" She opens the castle door rushing through them. "Let's hope Celestia is in the throne room."

"She better be." Fedor hopes as he is running behind Vulsegardt.

"Come on, around this corner down the hall!" She points the direction.

Upon going around the corner they are stopped by two armed EarthGov Human soldiers. They were accompanied by Xuri. He steps forward. "Miss Vulsegardt I presume?"

Fedor steps in front of Vulsegardt. "Hey buddy let us pass."

Xuri looks at Fedor. For a few seconds he stares at him without saying anything. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

Fedor with only a second to think, jumps on Xuri and knocks him down. "Vulse! Go!"

Vulsegardt gasps and after a moment she jumps between the soldiers and runs down the hall. Upon reaching the door she slams them open with her magic. She looks up to notice that Celestia is sitting on her throne accompanied by a few people who were probably politicians.

"Princess!" Vulsegardt shouts.

Xuri quickly catches up with Vulsegardt. Behind him come the two soldiers holding Fedor's arms behind his back.

Celestia raises her head. "What is going on here?"

Xuri trots forward and quickly answers. "EarthGov business. We apologize for the intrusion."

"I know what is causing this monster outbreaks!" Vulsegardt panicky raises her voice.

Celestia begins to pay attention to Vulsegardt. "And what would that be?" She asks.

"The Marker in Hayseed swamps." Vulsegardt answers.

For a few seconds Celestia stares at Vulsegardt. Then she looks at Xuri. "Is that true?"

Xuri begins to mutter. "Wait, no!" He looks at Vulsegard with slight anger.

"Get out!" Celestia raises her voice. "Call Atlax and leave these two with me."

"This is EarthGov business Celestia. You aren't allowed to interfere." Xuri denies.

"Don't even dare saying that." Celestia says slowly. "Any operation that happens in Equestria is my business. This matter was closed down to never be touched again and you are well aware of that Xuri. Tell Atlax we have much to discuss. Now leave!"

Xuri angered, turns around and leaves the room. He points at Fedor. "Let him go." The soldiers drop Fedor on the ground and leave the room."

Vulsegardt quickly runs to Fedor. "Are you alright?" She helps him in getting up, noticing that he has a bruise on his face. Vulsegardt gasps. "They hit you?" She looks at the door, watching Xuri leaving as the doors close.

"Motherfuckers..." Fedor curses as he cleans some blood coming from his nose.

Celestia walks up behind Fedor noticing the branded number twelve on his shoulder, examines it for a moment and moves in front of them. "Who are you two?"

Vulsegardt speaks first. "I'm Vulsegardt, history department."

Celestia looks at Fedor. "And you?"

"Fedor Conhanger. You already know me." Fedor answers.

"Founder of the Holder? I haven't seen you in years, you've certainly changed." Celestia wonders.

"I settled down. Grew hair, that kind of thing." Fedor says.

"And again in trouble." Celestia finished Fedor's sentence. She looks at Vulsegardt. "Come now, if this is true what you are saying then we have very much to discuss. And not much time to discuss it."

Chapter 9 - Bloody Mist

Fedor, Vulsegardt and Celestia sit down around a small round table in the neighbouring room.

"Alright, tell me what is going on." Celestia asks.

"The Marker in Ares is doing this... Whatever is happening now. These monsters." Vulsegardt answers.

Celestia frowns. "What happened?"

Vulsegardt also frowns and takes a breath. "We were sent to Ares, to examine the Marker, but..."

"It came to life, raising the dead." Fedor finishes Vulsegardt's sentence.

"I know nothing of this, who sent you?" Celestia asks.

"Atlax and the EarthGov." Fedor answers before Vulsegardt gets the chance.

Celestia thinks for a moment. "I was afraid of this."

"What do we do now?" Vulsegardt asks.

"The Marker. It does require very high magic skills but... It can be shut down." Celestia answers.

"I activated it." Vulsegardt says with an afraid voice. "I couldn't help myself. It's like it took control over me."

Celestia looks at Vulsegardt with a surprised face. "You activated it? But you're not even an Alicorn!"

"So we go down there and turn it off like a switch of a light?" Fedor interrupts.

Celestia thinks. "The Marker has powers you two couldn't begin to comprehend, once started it is not easy to be stopped. Only one man fully understands the power within it and he's missing."

"Can't we simply destroy it?" Fedor asks.

Celestia stands up and steps next to Fedor. She looks at him closely with a suspicious look on her face. She looks him in his eyes. She opens her mouth to ask something but is interrupted by a knock on the door. She sighs and turns to the door. "Come in."

The door opens. Ryan Atlax enters the room along with a woman in a leather jacket with EarthGov markings on it. Ryan steps forward. "You called Celestia?"

Celestia looks at him. "What do you think you're doing? The Marker project was closed down, it's to unstable too be pampered with!"

"Yes, well, I think we should discuss this in a more private manner." Atlax suggests. "I have already set up a table for a meal, we can discuss it there."

"Yes, we have much to speak of." Celestia agrees.

"Right away then?" Atlax begins to show the way.

Celestia begins to follow him. "Yes, now." She turns to Vulsegardt. "Stay here. That goes for both of you." She looks at Fedor.

Ryan turns around. "Ah, yes." He looks at the woman who entered with him. "Lilith, be an angel and make sure our friends here don't get into any trouble?"

The woman smiles. "With pleasure."

Ryan for a second looks at Vulsegardt with a slightly angered face before closing the door.

Celestia's raised voice could be heard shortly afterwards.

The woman sits down across of Fedor and Vulsegardt. "You two sure like to test your luck."

"Just the right people being on the wrong places." Fedor replies after examining Lilith. She had a holster on her side with a revolver in it.

"Oh no." Lilith smiles. "It was the perfect people at the right place, doing the right thing."

Vulsegardt begins to look at Lilith suspiciously. She felt uncomfortable in her presence. She was looking directly at Lilith's face, which had a malevolent smile while looking straight at Fedor.

Fedor gets up. "I need a drink." He walks slowly around the table staring at Lilith as she stared back. He takes a bottle of what looked like wine and a glass that were right next to Lilith. He fills the glass and slowly drinks the wine out. "And what do you mean with that Miss?"

Lilith giggles ."It means that everything is going according to plan, of course."

"Oh yeah? And what is this plan of yours?" Fedor asks.

"Oh, not mine." Lilith answers.

Fedor thinks for a moment. "Atlax's?"

Lilith chuckles. "You two are ponds in something you'll never understand."

"Celestia will put Atlax out of his position for this violation." Vulsegardt says.

Lilith responds with laughter. "Celestia will get what's coming to her."

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor with a worried expression on her face. "What are you talking about?"

Lilith puts her revolver on the table. "You two are coming with me."

"You're insane..." Vulsegardt states.

Lilith turns to Vulsegardt. As Lilith turns away Fedor quickly grabs the bottle by its neck and tries to hit Lilith. She dodges the attack and pulls out her revolver. She points it at Fedor. She smirks. "Now now, you gotta be alot faster than that."

Vulsegardt gets up. "You can't aim weapons at us! The tip of her horn begins to glow. "I'm warning you..." Vulsegardt threatens.

Lilith still pointing the revolver to Fedor. "You wouldn't want me hurting your friend by accident do you?"

Vulsegardt calms down. "No."

Lilith chuckles. "Good girl. Now you two are going with me."

"I ain't going nowhere with you." Fedor resists.

Lilith stares at Fedor for a few seconds. She dashes forward and hits Fedor with the bottom of her revolver. He steps back, quickly shakes his head and attempts at punching her, but she is to quick and dodges his attack again. She trips Fedor down and begins to smack his face with the revolver.

Vulsegardt panics. She levitates up the wine bottle and throws it at Lilith. The bottle hits and shatters on Lilith's back. she yelps and begins to charge towards Vulsegardt. Vulsegardt levitates a chair and throws it at Lilith as she is running towards her. Lilith dodges the chair and jumps on the table, Before Vulsegardt could find anything else to throw at Lilith, she kicks Vulsegardt by her muzzle, jumps off the table and kicks Vulsegardt in her stomach, knocking her down. "Now, you made me mad."

From behind Fedor quickly charges at Lilith and pushes her down. He sits on her and punches her face two times, at the third attempt Lilith points the revolver at his fist, pushing it straight between his fingers in his right palm. She smiles and pulls the trigger. Fedor screams as his palm is penetrated by the bullet from his revolver. Lilith smacks him and pushes him on the ground. She quickly gets up, kicks him in the chest and punches him in the face, slightly breaking his goggles and making him faint.

Vulsegardt gets up but Lilith quickly turns around and points her revolver at her. "Why don't you put that..." Lilith chuckles. "Combat magic to use and drag your friend here, so I don't shoot his brains out, sounds good?"

"Why are you doing this?" Vulsegardt asks with fear as she is stepping back only to be stopped by a wall.

Lilith doesn't answer. "Drag him." she points at Fedor.

Vuslegardt takes a deep breath as she begins to unwillingly drag Fedor by his legs with her magic. Lilith opens the door and begins to show the way. Vulsegardt follows her. For every corner they come across Lilith makes sure that nobody would see them.

Vulsegardt sees Guards with Celestia's mark on their armour in the distance. She considers screaming for help but notices Lilith staring at her with a sinister face. "Call them." Lilith says as she points the revolver at Fedor. "Go on. I dare you." She smiles sinisterly. Vulsegardt looks on the ground with anger.

Lilith smiles. "Good."

They both wait for the guards to move away. Lilith leads the way through a small corridor. By the markings on the wall it is seen that they are going in the part of the castle where EarthGov politicians reside. They end up in what seemed like a detention area. Lilith opens one of the doors.

"In here."

Vulsegardt enters the room with Lilith as she drags Fedor inside. She looks around the room and examines it. It had a medical table, a chair with straps and a small holding area resembling a cage.

Lilith points at Fedor. "Put him on the chair."

Vulsegardt rebels. "You have no right!"

Lilith pulls out a pocket knife while staring at Vulsegardt.

Vulsegardt begins to step back. "Please..."

Lilith begins to step towards her.

After a short while Vulsegardt bumps into a wall being unable to avoid Lilith. She closes her eyes and begins to breathe with panic.

As Lilith reaches her, she grabs Vulsegardt's muzzle sticks the knife right below her left eye and cuts her along the cheek. Vulsegardt cries out and attempts at hitting Lilith, but she grabs Vulsegardt by the neck, stopping her resistance.

Fedor wakes up and begins to slowly get up. Lilith hears this, releases Vulsegardt and quickly turns around with the revolver. "You're awake. Lovely. Sit down." She points at the chair.

"Make me, bitch." Fedor resists.

Lilith sticks her knife next to Vulsegardt's neck. "With pleasure."

"Alright, alright!" Fedor raises his arms and sits on the chair. Lilith smiles and looks at Vulsegardt. "Tie him down."

Vulsegardt sniffs and does as instructed. Fedor is tied down by his legs and arms with straps that were attached to the chair.

"Good." Lilith walks past Vulsegardt and picks up a small machine that was on the table.

"Exactly what the hell are you doing with us?" Fedor asks as he tries resisting the chair.

Lilith ignores Fedor and steps to Vulsegardt. She crouches and attaches the machine from the table on Vulsegardt's horn. Vulsegardt being to afraid, does not resist.

"Do some magic." Lilith asks.

Vulsegardt attempts at undoing Fedor's straps, but as soon as she starts the machine on her head glows and shocks her horn and head. She stops and begins to scream.

"That will keep you well behaved." Lilith smiles.

Vulsegardt slowly begins to sob.

Lilith turns her eyes around and sighs. "Aww, we can't have that now can we? I suggest you stop." She looks at Vulsegardt with a dead serious face. "Now..."

"Hey!" Fedor raises her voice. "Get away from her."

Lilith gets up and steps in front of Fedor. "Or else what?"

Fedor spits at her.

Lilith unimpressed begins to laugh. "You sure got me."

"Go to hell." Fedor replies.

Lilith smirks. "I'd be careful of my language if I were you... Fedor Conhanger is it? You and your friend there visited Ares?"

"Fuck you." Fedor says.

"You were tasked of examining the..." She takes a deep breath. "Marker, along with analysing it and bringing back a sample."

Vulsegardt wipes a tear of her face. "We were attacked before we could do anything."

Lilith looks at Vulsegardt. "No translations? No sample? Heh, Atlax won't be too happy hearing that."

"You ain't getting nothing." Fedor smiles.

Lilith turns to Fedor and sticks her finger down his wound in his palm. "Does that still hurt Freddie?"

Fedor cringes and begins to moan. "Stop!"

She pulls her finger out. "That's not how you talk to friends Freddie."

"The name is Fedor." He says as his hand is shaking. "And we're not friends."

"Oh, but we are. We have more in common than you realize." Lilith answers.

"I'm not like you. You're a psychopath!" Fedor raises his voice.

Lilith leans to Fedor and grabs his left shoulder. She begins to rub it and his back locating the branded number. She smiles and let's go. "I have one to." She takes off her jacket and turns around, revealing that below her left shoulder she had a branded number four.

Fedor looks with surprise. "Where did you get that?"

"Now that would be telling." Lilith doesn't answer.

"You were in the army?" Fedor asks.

"Maybe I was..." Lilith taunts. She sits down on a chair opposite of Fedor and begins to play with her knife. "Having... Memory problems Freddie?"

"No, I was captured and the number was given to me by some insane locals in the African dessert. I remember everything." Fedor answers.

Lilith smirks. "If you say so..."

For twenty minutes or so all three were silent and waiting in the interrogating room. Fedor strapped on the chair staring at Lilith, Lilith staring back at him and Vulsegardt trying to stay as calm as she can in the corner.

The door opens. Ryan Atlax enters the room. He looks at Fedor and Vulsegardt. "I told you to detain them Lilith, not kill them."

Lilith gets up. "Oh, they are very much alive. But they only carry bad news..."

"Is that so? What bad news?" Ryan asks with interest.

"They don't have a shard or translations..." Lilith tells.

Ryan takes a deep breath. "I send you to do one thing." He raises his voice. "One thing! And what happened, you went there, started a convergence and left with absolutely nothing?!"

"Hey! It was your failed attempt at telling us we would be going in our deaths!" Fedor also raises his voice.

"I never said that you should summon the necromorphs!" Ryan replies. From his pocket, Ryan pulls out a stone. He steps to Fedor and points it at him. It begins to faintly glow. "I don't understand. You couldn't have done this!"

"Maybe..." Lilith points at vulsegardt. "It was her?"

Ryan looks at Vulsegardt. He steps to her and points the stone at her. It begins to glow brightly. "What...?" Ryan looks at the stone with confusion. "I knew I should have called one of my agents instead." He turns to Lilith. I change my mind. Don't kill her, I want them both." He puts the stone back in his pocket.

Lilith slightly frowns. "As you wish."

"Now..." Ryan crouches and turns back to Vulsegardt. "You must have something. It's not possible that you touched it and it happened. You needed to be there for a short while, enough to get something translated."

"We don't have anything." Fedor joins the conversation.

"You're lying! You must have put interest into it. When you read the markings they spoke to you and took over. If you don't have it written down you must have it in your head!" Ryan begins to scream at Vulsegardt.

"Why do you want this anyways?!?" Vulsegardt screams back.

"Because..." Ryan stands up. "It holds a power. A power you couldn't possibly imagine."

Ryan's phone begins to ring. He picks it up. "What?" He listens for a short while. "No, no, no, not so soon!" He listens for a while. "Alright, alright, call the men and get into position, I'll be right there." He hangs up the phone. "Lilith, I have to go, if I can't have a shard I want the translations before we leave."

"What's going on?" Lilith asks.

Ryan begins to heavily cough. He spits out a small amount of blood. "Celestia is on to us."

Lilith looks at the coughed blood with interest. "Did you drink that wine?"

Ryan coughs again. "Yes. Only affects magical beings, so I should be fine." He opens the door and turns around. "Be ready for anything, I want as much as information as possible. And try not to kill them." He closes the door.

Lilith looks at Fedor and Vulsegardt with a sinister face. "I'll try."

Fedor looks at Lilith with an angered face. "You're getting nothing."

Lilith smiles. "Oh yeah? That hand? Still hurts?" She turns to Vulsegardt. "You're more cooperative than your friend here, why don't you tell me what you have?"

"I don't have anything..." Vulsegardt answers.

Lilith sits down at the chair and frowns. She sits there for a few minutes, silently thinking and laughing to herself.

"What a shame..." Lilith says as she gets up and walks to the medical table and picks up a bonesaw. "For you." She chuckles as she walks back to Fedor. "It's your lucky day Freddie. I'm going to take that pain in your hand away." She smiles malevolently.

Fedor begins to shake his straps. "Ryan said alive!"

Lilith closes her eyes as Fedor resists. "You'll live, besides, your friend over there needs a jog of memory..." She puts the saw above Fedor's right hand.

Vulsegardt stands up. "Wait no! I know something!"

Lilith looks at Vulsegardt. She smiles and begins to grind the saw on Fedor's arm. He responds with intense screaming as the saw cuts through his flesh, causing blood to flow down the chair.

Vulsegardt gasps and dashes forward towards Lilith. Lilith responds with taking the revolver out of her holster and pointing it at Vulsegardt with her left hand, while she is cutting Fedor's arm with her right. "And you remembered only now?"

Vulsegardt stops and begins to breathe in a fast manner. "Stop, please! I beg you! I wrote down the translations! I lost the books but I know where they are!"

Lilith ignoring Vulsegardt, still cutting on Fedor's arm while he is screaming at the top of his lungs. She cuts of Fedor's right hand, picks it up and throws it at Vulsegardt. From Fedor's arm blood begins to spill out in a fast manner. Fedor faints. "You have some medical supplies there, why don't you help your friend over here." Lilith points to the medical table.

Vulsegardt quickly runs to the medical table and with her mouth she picks up a first aid kit with her mouth. She runs to Fedor and spits the case on the ground. "I don't have my magic!" She says angrily.

Lilith smiles. "Thought you would have tried. It would amuse me." She picks up the first aid kit and opens it. She takes out the gauze that was in it and begins to wrap the whole amount that was in it around Fedor's wound to prevent the bleeding. She clips the gauge together. "There. Ain't that a pretty package tied up for Ryan." She turns to Vulsegardt. "You said you wrote something." She looks at her without her smile.

Vulsegardt steps back and begins to mutter. "Y-yes..."

Lilith approaches her but stops. From outside of the room an alarm is going off. "Already?" She turns away from Vulsegardt and steps back to Fedor. She quickly unstraps him and rushes to Vulsegardt taking the magic blocking machine of her horn and points the revolver at her. "Alright sister, just like we practised, you drag him and I don't pull the trigger."

Before Vulsegardt could resist a strong force begins to slam on the door.

Chapter 10 - The Dusk

Ryan turns around. "Ah, yes," He looks at Lilith, "Lilith, be an angel and make sure our friends here don't get into any trouble?"

Lilith smiles. "With pleasure," she answers.

Ryan for a second looks at Vulsegardt with a slightly angered face before closing the door.

It was less than a minute after when Celestia raised her voice, "What are you doing Ryan? You were the one suggesting to shut down Ares, now you're sending ponies back?" she asks.

"All at good time," Ryan replies. He leads Celestia into what seemed to be a dining area for the politicians and other high ranking people working there. They enter a room especially made for the highest ranking individuals, the room had a big round table where already Xuri and an Unicorn were sitting, waiting for Ryan and Celestia.

"Please," Ryan asks. "Sit down. Let's talk this through."

Celestia sits on a chair that had her emblem on the back. She looks at Xuri with a neutral face. "Xuri," she greets.

"Celestia," Xuri replies with a nod.

Celestia looks at the Unicorn across of Xuri. Unlike Xuri who was sitting on a chair with an EarthGov mark, the Unicorn was sitting on a chair with her emblem on it. "Bright," he greets him with a smile.

Ryan sits down and does the same. "Alright, let's eat!" he picks up a fork and knife and begins to eat."

Bright begins to speak, "I think we should rather speak about the recent events Atlax."

"I agree," Celestia says. "This isn't some bad magic like we thought. It's the old threat from Ares, one which you summoned Atlax!"

she says with a raised voice.

Ryan stops chewing and waves to one of the servants nearby. "Wine please," he asks.

The servant nods and quickly brings a bottle of wine. He puts it on the table and goes back to his post.

Ryan fills his glass with wine. After he takes a sip he looks at Celestia. "I won't lie to you Tia, I hired Vulsegardt to go to Ares," he says.

"But why?" she asks. "You know what dangers come from the Marker, why send anypony there?"

Ryan puckers his lips for a second and nods. "You're right. But while it was working it was so successful, we can't let one mistake take us down," he answers.

"But you also wanted the project shut down," Bright joins the conversation.

"I did," Ryan looks at Bright. "But I have changed my mind." He begins to fill the other glasses with wine. "You see, the opportunity which the Markers give us are just to great to simply put down because of a few mistakes that occurred in the past," he says as he offers everyone at the table a glass.

"You seem to forget about the lives that were lost at Ares," Celestia says as she takes the glass with her magic.

Xuri smirks. "You seem to forget that it was the Changeling terrorist movement that attacked Ares that day," he replies with a slightly insulting voice.

Bright takes a sip from the glass. He cringes, "Pretty strong, I never tasted anything like this before," he says.

Celestia also begins to drink. "Very strange taste indeed, what is it?" she asks.

Ryan shrugs and drinks the whole glass. upon doing this Xuri stares at Ryan with wide open eyes and surprise. "Earth's wine," Ryan answers. "Very good year too."

Celestia shakes her head and looks at Xuri. "Who says that nopony else might attack? The consequences of a mistake that the Marker brings are just to great for me to allow this," She says.

"This is an EarthGov matter Celestia. I do not require your blessing," Ryan says.

Celestia looks at Ryan with an insulted expression on her face. "Nothing happens on Equestria without my blessing!" she says with a raised voice.

Bright slightly coughs. "Ahem, without the whole UNEE's authorization nothing is allowed on Equestria, and with us disagreeing you cannot make any actions without us knowing," he explains.

Ryan sighs. "This could have gone so well. I will gladly take this to court if you wish," he threatens.

Celestia raises her voice, "Gentlemen please! There are lives being lost out there, that should be our concern, not a civil war!"

"We did not expect nor ordered the Marker to be activated by the agents we sent to Ares, its mostly their fault, not ours," Xuri explains with a calm voice.

"And how are you planning to solve this with Altman missing? He's been gone for several months now," Celestia asks.

Ryan doesn't answer at first. "We could eliminate the infected across Equestria, then restart Ares. Calm the Marker down, gaining some use of this terrible tragedy," he suggests.

"I said no Ryan!" Celestia answers angrily.

"You can't blame me for what my agents did!" Ryan answers with also a raised voice.

"Both Vulsegardt and Fedor Conhanger are not with EarthGov. On who's authority have you sent them?" Celestia calms down and asks.

Ryan and Xuri are both silent.

Ryan opens his mouth to say something but Celestia stands up first. "So if I go to EarthGov archives I will see an order from Earth?" Celestia asks.

"You have no right going there Celestia!" Xuri says.

Celestia looks at Xuri with anger. "If you have nothing to hide, there is no need for you to worry," she says. "Come Bright, we are heading there right now!"

Bright nods, "Yes, Princess." He gets up and accompanies her outside of the room.

After a few moments of their departure Xuri leans to the silent Ryan. "Why did you drink the wine?" he asks.

"Keep an eye on Celestia," Ryan doesn't answer Xuri's question. "Contact me if she finds anything," he orders.

"Yes..." Xuri nods and agrees.

Several minutes later Celestia, Bright, three unicorn guards and several technicians with Celestia's mark gather by the doors of EarthGov intelligence. Celestia knocks on the door several times. After a minute a Human opens the door. "Can I be of any assistance?" he asks.

"Empty this room and step aside," Celestia answers.

The man looks at Celestia with confusion. "On who's authority?" he asks.

"On mine," Celestia answers as she slightly pushes the man aside. "Attention!" She raises her voice, "Everypony out!"

The staff inside looks at each other for a few moments uncertain on what should they do. Out of fear of the enraged Princess, most of them leave immediately, the rest left a minute later.

Celestia takes a deep breath. "Search everything. Anything that is connected to the Marker is reported to me," she orders.

Her staff sit down at the computers and begin scavenging for information. Minutes pass without nobody saying anything.

Celestia notices an Unicorn guard among the technicians tinkering on the computer. She approaches him, "Aren't you a guard?" she asks.

He doesn't answer. A few seconds later on the screen where he was working on several windows open with the headline Marker Project.The Unicorn turns to Celestia. "They only gave jobs for guards," he says.

Celestia looks at the information displayed in front of her with wide eyes. "What is your name?" she asks him.

"My name is Local ma'am. Castle Guard," he answers.

Celestia slightly smiles. "I think I can find a job for somepony like you. Now, tell me what can we find here," she says.

"Well..." Local searches. "The last major entry was made three years ago. Everything else seems to be just small updates."

"Can you find any proof that this was authorized by EarthGov?" Bright asks.

Local searches throughout the computer's data. "Seems that only Ryan Atlax signed the papers, not the President of EarthGov," he shows.

Celestia mutters to herself, "I knew it. He was acting so strange lately..." She begins to cough. "Read that major update you mentioned," she instructs while slightly coughing.

Local nods his head and begins to search the data again. After a few moments a video feed begins to play.

In the video feed there seems to be Xuri in a laboratory. "Feed 7, Xuri reporting, Tirek's Stone has been acquired. Given a simple look it may simply be mistaken for any crystal containing Unicorn magic for Humans, but after a close analyses it is shown that this stone has power unlike everything I have ever seen. Unlike a normal magical stone, which requires an Unicorn to power it, Tirek's stone has the ability to take magic. In addition it can hold many spells unlike the normal magical stone. It is also currently the only proof of Marker influence found in Equestria. Different from the ones found on Earth, but bearing the same symbols. I will continue with the research tomorrow, Xuri out." The feed ends.

"I know nothing of this! Another!" Celestia raises her voice and coughs again.

As she coughs Bright looks at Celestia with worry.

Local nods again and loads another feed.

"Feed 13, Xuri reporting. As ordered, Subject 2 was... Removed from the Marker Project." He stays silent for a moment. "Subject's 2 transfer to Subject 1 was successful. Subject 1 renamed to Subject 3 will be decommissioned from the Project until further notice." He takes a deep breath. "It's been a busy day. Xuri out." The feed ends.

Celestia looking at the screen with an angry frown turns to Bright. "Contact my sister immediately," She orders and coughs.

Bright looks at her with concern. "Are you feeling well?" he asks.

"Now Bright Judgement!" she replies with a raised voice.

Bright shakes his head and leaves the room, leaving the EarthGov part of the castle. While walking he notices Xuri in a corner holding a phone speaking to someone through it. He dodges his vision, returning to Celestia's chambers.

Celestia sighs. She turns back to Local, "Can you load something newer?" she asks.

Local nods and with his magic he operates the keyboard. Several pictures of different Humans and Ponies load, all having a minor description. Celestia steps closer and looks throughout the images shown to her. She stops at a specific image of a man and reads the description. She gasps with the information closed to her. "Ryan... What have you done?" She begins to stare at the ground, saying nothing. She looks back up and turns to Local. "You, guard! A couple of hours ago we have received two visitors..."

"Oh, Vulsegardt?" He asks. "She came with a friend an hour or two ago," Local answers.

"Yes," Celestia answers with slight relief. "Go to my chambers and find them. Get them out of Canterlot, they must be protected, do you understand?" she orders.

"Yes ma'am," Local nods and leaves the room.

"Everypony listen!" Celestia raises her voice. "Make a copy of everything! Guards come with me! We must find Representative Ryan Atlax," She says as he leaves the room with a couple of guards.

With her group she walks down the hallway and stops across the entrance where Fedor and Vulsegardt entered. In the distance, Celestia sees Ryan walking towards her. "Ryan!" she shouts.

Ryan walks until he reaches Celestia. "Ah, I've been looking for you Princess," he says and coughs.

"I know everything," Celestia says with a hostile voice.

Ryan sighs. "I wish we could work this out on more... Friendly terms," he says.

Celestia looks at him with confusion. "You have been holding people against their will, conducting unspeakable things!" she says with a raised voice.

"Oh Tia," Ryan says with a disappointed voice. "What are a few lives towards a goal like this?" he asks.

"Your friends Ryan! They were your friends and you locked them up like some feral animals!" Celestia replies.

Ryan smirks. "They serve a greater purpose now. A purpose which you will not interfere with," he says.

"No!" Celestia denies. "I am contacting EarthGov right now, informing them what have you been doing on their behalf, without their authorization!" She looks at the guards, "In the meantime, Representative Ryan Atlax, you are under arrest," she says as the two guards approach Ryan.

Ryan takes a step back. "I disagree." From his pocket Ryan pulls out what seemed to be a magical stone, he points it towards one of the guards, it begins to glow and it shoots out a bolt of magic which kicks the guard back several meters.

The second guard, being an Unicorn, he shoots out the same bolt towards Ryan, but with the stone in his hand Ryan generates a shield, blocking the attack. Ryan quickly points his stone towards the guard and shoots what seemed to be a lightning spell, which electrocuted the guard making him fall down.

Before Ryan could do anything else, he gets knocked down by a magical force conjured by Celestia. Ryan attempts to get up but Celestia shoots him down again with a magic bolt. She begins to cough as her magic weakens.

Ryan chuckles and gets up. "What's wrong Tia?" He coughs. "Drank to much?" he asks sinisterly.

"You snake," Celestia responds. "You should have used a better poison then, because I still win," she says as she slightly pants.

Ryan begins to laugh. "Now!" he screams.

Suddenly from nothing two Unicorns and four Humans appear surrounding Ryan and Celestia. All of them were holding magical stones with the power of an invisibility cloak. All had weapons pointing at Celestia.

She gasps, looking around for a way to escape. She begins to charge a spell to teleport herself out but her head begins to hurt with an intense pain. She yelps and falls down.

Ryan approaches her. "Modified poison joke Celestia. Mixed with the finest wine of course. I'll have to give Xuri a raise," he says as he smiles.

"No!" Celestia screams and jumps in the air. She sends out a magical pulse, knocking down everyone around her. Everyone except Ryan. He protects himself with the stone in his hand. He extends his right arm and shoots out a spell that seemed like lightning, Celestia responds with doing the same.

The two spells collide and cause a minor explosion.

Celestia panting searches for Ryan in the created smoke. Suddenly she feels a strong sting on her right hip. She turns around to notice she was shot by one of Ryan's men. Celestia quickly dashes forward and shots her attacker with a spell that pierces his chest, instantly killing him. She turns around to notice four others were aiming their weapons towards her. Before she could do anything she is showered with bullets. She quickly casts a shield to block the attacks, but because of the pain in her head the shield breaks, making bullets hit her several times across her body. For five seconds or so, the supposed assassins shoot Celestia. A moment later she falls on the ground making a small pool of blood around herself.

Ryan steps between the guards moving towards the Princess barely hanging to her life. He looks at her with slight empathy. "You just had to go snoop around didn't you?" he coughs and asks with a calm voice.

Celestia coughs some blood and looks up to Ryan. "Why Ryan?" she asks with a frail voice.

"Convergence Tia. I knew you would be against it. Altman was too. But soon, none of this will even mater. When Convergence occurs I will gain my power and a new era of life will begin!" Ryan explains.

"This isn't you Ryan..." Celestia replies and coughs. "That stone... It's killing you..." she says with a sad dying voice.

Ryan smirks and takes out his magical stone. It seemed different from the others. On it there were the same markings that Vulsegardt found on the Marker. "Funny," he says. "I've never felt more alive before.

"Don't make the same mistake Brian did," Celestia says quietly.

Ryan smirks again, turns around and takes a pistol from one of his men. "Matthias was a arrogant weak fool! That's why he's dead," he says.

Celestia slowly lays her head on the ground in her blood pool and sighs. "Altman will stop you..." she says with her final words.

"I think we both know that..." He points the pistol at Celestia. "Won't be happening." he says and pulls the trigger.

The bullet pierces through Celestia's skull, taking her life away.

Ryan stares at Celestia's body with an emotionless expression on his face. "Given the right poison even an Alicorn falls. Shame, I wanted to test the stone more," he says. "Alright, I doubt nobody heard that," he looks at his assassins. "Grab her body and take her..."

"Sister!!!" A loud scream is heard across the hallway.

Ryan slowly looks where the sound was coming from, he sees Princess Luna along with Bright Judgement standing by the entrance where Fedor and Vulsegardt entered, both looking with horror towards Ryan's display.

Ryan quickly looks at Celestia's corpse realizing there is no possible lie that could deny his crime. He looks back to Luna and begins to shout, "Kill them!"

Ryan's assassins point their weapons towards the witnesses but before any of them could pull a trigger, one guard has already lost his head due to a magic bolt shot by Luna.

Luna enraged, blocking all projectiles fired at her with a shield, she steals the assassin's weapons from their hands pointing them against their owners and pulls the triggers. All but one assassin die.

Ryan quickly begins to charge his stone, he becomes invisible, allowing him to escape.

Luna dashes forward and begins to choke the remaining assassin with her magic. She lifts him up only holding him by his neck. "What is the meaning of this?!" she asks with rage.

After a small battle for air the assassin begins to speak, "Ryan wanted your sister dead, he payed us to cloak ourselves and wait for the right moment. We were suppose to weaken her though, not kill her..." he says.

"Why?! For his amusement?!?" Luna asks with teary eyes as she is chocking the assassin with stronger force..

"We were also... Ordered to secure his agents who came here... Making sure they get to Ryan..." he answers while battling for air.

"Miss Vulsegardt and Mister Fedor Conhanger?" Bright says, still in shock.

"Yes! Those two!" The assassin answers. "Ryan had his hitman taking them!"

Luna thinks. She closes her eyes and begins to concentrate. Her horn begins to faintly glow for a few moments. She reopens her eyes. "I know where they are," she says.

Luna stares at the assassin for a short time before throwing him across the hallway like a toy. "Tell your master I'm coming for him next," She says as she picks him up and hits his head to a wall, making him faint.

Bright, quietly panting with fear steps to Celestia's body. He stares at her silently.

Luna quickly walks away, holding back her emotions. "Come Bright! That is an order!" she says with a raised voice.

Bright slowly looks from Celestia to Luna, "But, your sister..."

"Now!" Luna shouts.

Bright nods and begins to follow her. They enter the EarthGov section of the castle.

An alarm begins to ring across the entire building. Celestia's guards and EarthGov personnel begins to run around the entire building, all passing Luna and Bright. Luna ignoring everyone continues walking until reaching a metal door in the secluded area of EarthGov's part.

"Princess, what are we doing?" Bright asks.

Luna ignoring Bright begins to slam on the door with her magic.

Bright looks at the angry Princess with confusion. "Luna, we have to leave!" he says.

Luna keeps slamming the door until it breaks down and falls. She enters the room and notices Lilith pointing a revolver at Vulsegardt.

Lilith gasps and points her weapon towards Luna but before pulling the trigger Luna shots an electrical storm at her, shocking Lilith for several seconds. Lilith, burned alive drops on the floor and faints. Faint smoke is coming out of her flesh.

Vulsegardt quickly jumps to Fedor and unties him.

Bright examines Fedor. "What have they been doing to you two?" he asks with shock.

Vulsegardt looks at Bright. "They tortured us for information... Please help us!" she asks and slightly sobs.

Luna lifts Fedor's entire body with her magic and puts him on his back. "We need to leave little one," she says.

Vulsegardt nods and follows Luna and Bright out of the room. "Is he going to die?" She looks at Fedor and asks with fear.

"Not if we get out of here in time," Bright answers.

They walk down the hallway for a few moments only to be stopped by two EarthGov soldier's and one Celestia's guard. Ryan was standing behind them. "There she is!" He shouts and points. "Princess Luna has killed her sister with the help oh Celestia's right hand!"

Upon hearing this Vulsegardt gasps and looks at Luna. "What?" she asks with a scared voice.

"How dare you?!?" Luna shouts.

Before Luna could say anything else the soldiers begin firing on the group. Luna generates a shield and begins to move back. Vulsegardt and Bright do the same.

Ryan pulls out his stone and shoots a powerful bolt that breaks Luna's shield with ease. He shoots another bolt at Luna but before it could reach her Vulsegardt intercepts that bolt with her own magic.

Ryan pushes the soldiers aside with a force from his stone and conjures blue fire that burns everything in front of him. Bright generates a shield that blocks the fire but after a short while the shield breaks. Ryan quickly shoots a bolt that knocks Bright down.

Luna drops Fedor and dashes forward, she quickly shoots an ice spike at Ryan making him drop his stone. Ryan responds with taking out the pistol he took earlier and begins to fire at Luna.

Luna stops and creates a shield that blocks the incoming fire. As Luna is blocking the bullets Ryan jumps on the ground and grabs the stone. He shoots an unusual spell at Luna, a red force that seemed to weaken her. Luna's shield breaks, she screams and falls down as Ryan gets up and approaches her.

Bright shoots a fireball at Ryan, stopping him from weakening Luna. He begins to drag Luna's weak body towards him with his magic. "Luna! We need to leave!" he shouts.

As she is dragged, Luna nods and her horn begins to glow. A large blue mist is conjured up making Luna, Fedor, Vulsegardt and Bright disappear.

"Fuck!" Ryan shouts and throws his stone on the ground. "They teleported!"

Chapter 11 - No breaks

"What do we do now?"

"Luna?"

"Luna, you have to talk to me!"

Luna silently looks at Bright. The group seemed to be on a grass field near a forest.

"She's gone..." Luna mutters in a sad manner.

"What the hell happened?" Fedor asks.

"I... Was called by Bright... We entered the castle and... He just shot her," Luna replies with a slightly angered voice.

"Atlax?" Vulsegardt asks.

Luna looks at Vulsegardt with an aggravated face. "He killed her!" she shouts.

"We should rather think of what our next course of action should be! Atlax is putting this on us, we will be wanted for Celestia's murder!" Bright says.

"We should find somepony we trust." Vulsegardt suggests.

"We can go to The Crystal Empire! We can trust Princess Cadence and Prince Armour," Fedor agrees.

"No," Luna answers. "We are close to Ponyville, we will go there to Princess Twilight."

"But we can go to the Crystal Empire from there, all Royal buildings have transporters of my creation in them." Fedor says.

"Transporters?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Yeah. One of the experiments with the Holder Crystal after the big gates were opened. Small teleporter pads that are stationed in Ponyville, Canterlot and The Crystal Empire. They are able to transport anyone or anything from one to another, we can take them and warn Cadence and Armour." Fedor explains.

"Seems like a reasonable plan," Bright agrees.

"Bright." Luna turns to him, "What exactly is going on?" She asks with a sad tone in her voice.

Bright doesn't answer at first. "I'm not sure..." he says after a few moments.

"How can you not be sure?" Luna asks with a raised angry voice.

"Ryan and Celestia were arguing because Ryan ordered marker related activities without her's or EarthGov's consent, Celestia was on to him and Ryan probably didn't like that," Bright guesses.

"Of course," Luna mutters as she hits the ground with one of her hooves. "He has that cursed stone with him." She says.

"Stone?" Vulsegardt asks with curiosity.

"Tirek's stone," Luna answers and sighs. "It all makes sense now..." she whimpers.

"Sense?" Fedor raises his voice. "They chopped my damn arm off, where the hell is the sense in that?!" He asks.

Bright slightly coughs. "Do you remember Brian Matthias?" He asks.

"The first human to represent Earth?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Yes. He was removed off his position because of treason. He tried to kill Celestia," Brian explains.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Fedor asks.

"It was because of that cursed stone..." Luna adds.

Bright nods, "Yes, the stone... When Tirek's hand came to Brian's possession he slowly went mad. He killed for it. Until..."

"Ryan killed him," Luna finishes Bright's sentence. "He saved my sister's life and thus he took Brian's place. We thought the stone was lost after that but, it seems we were wrong."

"And what's the deal on this, stone?" Fedor asks.

"The deal..." Bright says. "Is that this stone is far more powerful compared to the Marker. The only Marker influence found in Equestria."

"Where was it found?" Vulsegardt asks.

"The badlands," Luna answers. "Brian went too far and killed a Changeling town there to get it. The stone poisoned his mind and turned him mad with power," she says.

"A magical stone that is more powerful than one of you Alicorns? I thought your kind was top with power." Fedor asks with surprise.

"It can absorb magic from any kind of being with magic. That's why it's called Tirek's stone." Luna answers. "I could not do anything against it," she says.

"If he wants you dead, then what does he want with me and Vulse?" Fedor asks.

"We don't know," Bright answers. "But I do know we aren't safe." He looks at Luna. "We need to find Twilight," he says.

Luna nods and gets up. "We aren't far from Ponyville."

"We should be quick," Bright says. "It's only a matter of hours until we are declared as enemies to Canterlot."

Luna doesn't say anything, she begins to move in a straight line in the grass field. After a moment Bright begins to follow her.

Vulsegardt helps Fedor up. "Are you alright?" she asks.

Fedor extends his right arm and looks at it with a frown. "No, I'm not," he answers. "I feel tired, I lost alot of blood back there."

"It will be alright," Vulsegardt says as she looks at Fedor with pity.

"We just need to get to The Crystal Empire, it's gonna hurt alot but I can get my hand back," Fedor says.

Vulsegardt looks at Fedor with confusion. "What?" She asks.

"Remember when I said I had a mechanical limb replacer? Fedor answers with a question.

"Yes, but are you sure you can just do this like that?" Vulsegardt asks with worry.

"Yeah, uhm... Maybe. Never tried the hand. Takes a few minutes to put it on, the adjusting when it's on takes forever though. If we could just go there..." Fedor explains.

"We will, but not right now," Luna interferes Fedor's speaking.

Vulsegardt slightly frowns. "Can you hold until then?" she asks Fedor.

"I'll need a hand along the way," Fedor answers with a slight smile.

Vulsegardt smirks. "You shouldn't joke like that, I was scared that woman would kill us," she says.

Fedor frowns without saying anything.

"Come now," Bright says. "Let's go."

Vulsegardt and Fedor both nod and begin to follow Luna. They walk for a few minutes until Luna stops. In the distance Ponyville could be seen. A large crystal wall was surrounding the village with a small crystal castle in the corner. The group stands still and observers.

"Let's not waste time," Bright says. "We don't have much of it," he says as he begins to approach the wall. Shortly after, the rest follow him.

On the path towards the entrance a dozen of dismembered monster bodies were laying on the ground, all in a blood pool of their own.

The group reaches a steel gate, behind it there were several guards with purple armour. As the guards notice Luna, the gate quickly begins to rise up, allowing the group inside.

"Princess Luna," a Guard greets her and bows.

The group quickly move forward to the small crystal castle, past several humans and ponies. As they passed groups of villagers, many gave them strange looks, to why they are here, but most looked away after a few seconds of staring, going on with their business. Since there was no major reaction the group speculated that the news hasn't hit Ponyville yet.

Upon reaching the castle doors, Luna begins to knock on them. A few moments later the door opens. A dragon, about Vulsegardt's size stands behind it.

"Princess Luna?" The Dragon looks with surprise. "What are you doing here?" He asks.

"Hello Spike, I need to speak with Twilight, it's very urgent," Luna quickly answers.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Spike apologizes. "Twilight isn't here, she is dealing with the monsters in Baltimare, seemed pretty serious."

Upon hearing this Luna slowly turns to Bright with a great deal of worry on her face.

"Then let's go to the Crystal Empire already!" Fedor slightly raises his voice.

Spike turns to Fedor and notices that he is missing a hand, blood dripping out of his wound. "Whoa, what the heck happened to you?" He asks with shock.

"Spike you have to let us in the castle!" Luna urges the worried dragon.

"Wait, what's going on?" Spike asks with concern.

Luna ignoring spike she fully opens the crystal door with her magic and enters the castle. Fedor, Vulsegardt and Bright quickly begin to follow.

"Wait!" Spike raises his voice and jumps in front of Luna. "I can't just let you in here, Twilight isn't home."

"Don't worry, we only need to use the personal teleporting transport to the Crystal Empire. It's quite urgent," Bright explains to Spike.

"On what business?" Spike asks.

No one answers.

Looking with a suspicious face Spike raises his hand, shortly after a couple of guards come the way.

Upon seeing the approaching guards Vulsegardt panics. "EarthGov wants to hurt Princess Twilight!" She lies.

Spike looks at Vulsegardt with worry. After a few moments he raises his hand again to send away the guards. "Wh-What do you mean?" He asks.

"As I said, we need to use the personal transport to go to the Crystal Empire. Princess Candence and Prince Armour might be in danger too," Bright says.

"What about Twilight?" Asks.

"We will get to her, we need to get to Cadence and Shining fast," Luna answers.

After a thought Spike nods and begins to lead the way down a hallway. The group begins to follow. Upon reaching the end of the hallway Spike opens a metal door which had a staircase leading down. After reaching the end they find themselves in a big room which contained two terminals and five small machines on the ground.

"There they are!" Fedor says with slight cheer.

"We shouldn't waste time then," Bright states.

Fedor slowly walks towards one of the terminal.

"Easy now," Vulsegardt says with worry.

Fedor pouts. "I'm fine," he says with a calm voice. He steps to one of the terminals and begins to push buttons on it with his left hand. After a short while the teleporters begins to glow.

"Alright, step on them, we should pop up at my workshop," Fedor instructs.

"We?" Bright asks. "You're in no condition to go anywhere," he says.

"I'm going," Fedor says with a slightly insulting voice. "I can get my hand back, I-I will get my hand back!" He says with a raised serious voice.

"Your wish," Luna says as she steps on one of the machines. "Come, we don't have much time."

"What should I tell Twilight?" Spike asks.

"Tell her to meet me at the meeting place," Luna answers as her body disappears.

Slowly after Luna's transport, Fedor, Bright and Vulsegardt follow.

Just like Fedor said all of them appear in his workshop stationed in the Crystal Empire.

Fedor with relief quickly approaches a machine on the other side of the room. It was white and had what seemed to be a medical table in it. "Yes! I can get my hand back!" He says with joy as he begins to operate the machine.

"Can you stop worrying about your hand already?" Luna asks with a raised voice. "Do you have any idea what is going on?"

"It will only take a few minutes," Fedor answers.

"EarthGov has a very strong presence here, do you think we can take time for an operation?! My sister died and you want to stop because you got maimed?!" Luna says with anger.

"EarthGov can't get in here," Fedor replies.

"We can do this later!" Luna also shouts.

"No we can't! It's going to be the damn apocalypse out there and I won't die because I'm missing a limb!" Fedor shouts back.

"And what if soldiers come storming down this place, will you ask them to just stop too?" Luna asks angrily.

"No! Computer!" Fedor calls as he hits the nearby machine with anger.

A big screen in the middle of the workshop lights up. "Computer online. Welcome Fedor Conhanger. System standing by." A robot voice is heard across the workshop."

"Activate personal defences, shoot to kill anyone that isn't resident of the Crystal Empire or in this very room right now!" Fedor says.

"What are you doing?" Luna asks.

"Pending..." The computer answers. "Password is required."

Fedor pouts and approaches the computer on the other side of the room. He types in a password and all the lights in the room turn red. Three big metal boxes in the room open, inside each revealing what seemed to be a tripodal machine with two turrets on each side. Upon their activation they begin to spin left and right observing the workshop.

"Whoa," Vulsegardt says with an impressed voice.

"Sentry defences Princess. You think I'd let anyone harm me in my very home?" Fedor asks as he turns back to his first machine, with a press of a few buttons it lights up. "Limb Replacer active, welcome, Fedor Conhanger." The machine says.

Luna shakes her head and looks at Bright. "Bright, stay here." She looks at Vulsegardt, "You, come with me."

"Shouldn't I go with you Princess?" Bright asks.

"No, with my sister gone and me being accused of her murder, you will be in control of Canterlot and our side of the UNEE. I can't risk getting you taken," Luna answers.

"I'm not expendable am I?" Vulsegardt asks with a worried voice.

"No," Luna answers. "Nopony is. You two have no idea what value you have to Ryan, but I can't go up there alone," she says as she begins to walk towards a staircase.

Vulsegardt gulps and looks at Fedor. "How long will you need?" she asks.

Fedor sighs. "Activate operational procedure mode," he says.

"Select operation," the machine answers.

Fedor pushes some buttons, this makes the medical table switch with a small hole, presumably where Fedor will put his right arm. He walks away from the machine, returning with a chair to it. He thinks for a few moments as he sits on the chair. "Not long, I hope..." He answers.

"I'm worried," Vulsegardt says and sighs.

"I'll... Be okay." Fedor mutters with uncertainty.

Vulsegardt frowns and begins to follow Luna. She follows her up several stairs.

"You just stick your hand in and you get a new one if I understand this correctly?" Bright asks Fedor with slight confusion.

Fedor smirks as he removes the bandages from his hand, revealing a bloody wound. He cringes puts it in the machine. "Not really, a ton of things have to be done before an operation, but since we don't have the time, I'll have to risk it," he replies.

"You said something about an apocalypse?" Bright asks another question.

"Well... I hope not," Fedor says. "But if I'll have to fight, I want to have my both hands. Computer, begin procedure."

"Please select damaged areas to be repaired." The machine asks.

"Human. Below right Humerus." Fedor instructs.

"Pending..." The machine answers. "Beginning procedure..."

For a few seconds the machine made electrical noises. Fedor's right arm gets pulled deeper in, making the machine light up. Fedor begins to pant and after a few moments he begins to moan and curse from pain.

Vulsegardt follows Luna until reaching a metal door. "Why didn't we take the elevator?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Just making sure," Luna answers as she opens the metal door with her magic. They find themselves in a long empty corridor.

"Cadence?" Luna calls with a raised voice.

"Over here!" After a few seconds a familiar voice is heard in the distance.

With relief Luna and Vulsegardt begin to run towards the direction from where the voice was coming from. They end up in what looked like a empty throne room, with Princess Cadence sitting on the throne.

"Cadence! Thank goodness you're here, where is Shining?" Luna asks.

"Luna..." Cadence says with a sad voice. "Is it true what they say?" She asks.

Luna looks at Cadence with anger, "No! You don't believe their lies do you?"

"They said they saw you do it," Cadence answers with a saddened voice.

"Princess!" Vulsegardt says with a raised voice. "They kidnapped me and maimed Fedor!"

Cadence looks at Vulsegardt with wide eyes. "I remember you, you were here days before this happened," she says with a slightly surprised voice.

"Yes! Atlax tricked me into going to Ares and now he's trying to blame Luna for Celestia's death!" Vulsegardt explains.

Cadence thinks for a moment, but before she could say anything the doors on the other side of the room get knocked open and several armed EarthGov troopers enter. They aim all their weapons towards Luna and Vulsegardt.

A high ranking soldier steps out of the crowd. "Princess Luna, you are under arrest for sororicide." He says.

Luna steps back and spreads one of her wings, blocking Vulsegardt from vision. "I did no such thing!" Luna states with a raised voice.

Cadence looks at the soldier outside of the crowd. "Is there any proof to this accusation?" She asks.

"The accused was seen by Representative Atlax himself Princess," the soldier answers to Cadence.

"Ryan Atlax is a lying snake!" Luna shouts. "Cadence!" Luna turns to Cadence, "You can't believe their lies can you? I would never!"

Cadence doesn't answer. She stares at Luna with a mix of confusion and worry on her face.

"With two attempts so far, you might think the third one would be the charm?" The soldier raises his voice as he looks to Cadence.

Everybody stays silent.

Luna slightly tilts her head to Vulsegardt's direction. "Get out. Get Bright and your friend and leave," she says quietly.

"What?" Vulsegardt asks with worry as she looks at Luna. "What about you?"

"I'd advise you surrender Princess Luna," the soldier interrupts. "We outnumber you," he threatens.

"I will not bow to snakes such as yourself!" Luna answers to the threat.

The soldier looks at the troops behind him and nods, making everyone aim their weapons towards Luna. "Then we will have to take you by force," he says.

"You will need much more than a dozen humans with guns to take an Alicorn down," Luna replies with a smirk.

For a moment the soldier stares at Luna. He notices that Luna's horn begins to glow, he quickly turns to his troops and yells, "Take her!"

The troops begin to fire at Luna, she responds with creating a shield in front of herself, protecting her from harm, she dashes forward and uses a magical force to knock down most of the troopers, those who were still standing continued with their fire.

Vulsegardt stunned with the battle displayed before her, she slowly turns her vision to Princess Cadence. She notices that the Princess is staring at her, barely being able to stay still in the throne. "Run," Cadence mimics with her lips.

Vulsegardt turns around and begins to run back to the metal door. Upon reaching it she turns her head to check for Luna. Instead of the expected Princess she sees several soldiers running in her way. Vulsegardt gasps and opens the door, beginning to run down the stairs.

As she runs down she hears a metallic bang not to far from her, the soldiers were after her, she begins panting with fear as she is trying to escape her pursuers.

While running, Vulsegardt accidentally skips one of the steps and falls down, rolling down the stairs. Before she could get up, she felt that a heavy mass hitting her back, making her unable to stand up. She notices that a EarthGov soldier is on top of her. The soldier punches Vulsegardt several times, but is pushed away by magic. Vulsegardt whimpers and regains her stand, continuing her run. The soldier does the same.

Vulsegardt notices the end of the staircase, with fear she jumps forward as much as she could, hitting a few stacked crates in Fedor's workshop.

The soldier entering the workshop, still headed for Vulsegardt is suddenly showered in lead, Fedor's sentry defences puncture the soldier's body with several bullets before the soldier falls down and dies in a blood pool.

Vulsegardt looks towards the machine Fedor and Bright were standing by. She quickly gets up and runs to them. "EarthGov attacked, Luna said we have to leave now!" She says as she is panting.

"We can't leave now, your friend is still under operation!" Bright points to the screaming Fedor.

Fedor still had his hand in the machine and by the looks of it, he was in severe pain.

Behind them an explosion occurs, the soldiers who followed Vulsegardt were hiding behind sentry eyes, trying to destroy them.

Bright quickly pushed Vulsegardt behind Fedor. "We have to go!" He shouts.

"No!" Vulsegardt replies with a raised voice. "We can't leave Fedor behind!"

Bright shakes his head and steps near one of the sentries that were observing the staircase. He generated a shield to cover himself and the machines. "We can't wait forever!" He shouts.

Vulsegardt nods and steps behind the machine controls. It did not make much sense to Vulsegardt, only the big number eighty-seven with a percent sign next to it.

"Fedor, how much more do you need?" Vulsegardt shouts.

Fedor doesn't answer. He keeps shouting swears, probably of all the pain the machine was giving him.

Sentry defences begin to fire on the oncoming soldiers with no success, the soldiers used magical stones to conjure a shield to block all incoming fire. Slowly approaching the group the troopers fire on the sentry defences, destroying two out of three machines.

Bright unsuccessfully tries to break the enemy shield with magic bolts. With no results he panics and turns to Vulsegardt. "We have to go now!" He shouts.

Before Vulsegardt could answer she notices a grenade land not far away from where she was standing. With a horrified face she jumps back, trying to avoid the expected explosion. She conjures up a small shield around her to protect herself. The grenade pops out a strong electrical field that shocks the machine Fedor was using. The machine begins to emit error warnings before shutting down due to the damage received. A part of the machine explodes, sending a strong electrical shock into Fedor's body.

Fedor begins to scream as his entire body is being swallowed by electricity. He collapses losing his consciousness.

As the last sentry defence is being fired on, Bright steals a grenade from a soldier's belt, setting it off and throwing it into the crowd. It destroyed their shield from the inside, making the sentry defence effective again.

Vulsegardt begins to smash the machine with her magic, separating Fedor from it. She begins to pull Fedor towards the teleporter. "Bright!" She calls.

Bright turns around and jumps on a pad. "That won't hold them forever, let's go!" He shouts as he teleports.

Vulsegardt places Fedor on a pad and jumps on another. Both teleport and the group appears back at the Ponyville castle.

As Vulsegardt and Fedor return, Bright begins to smash the teleporter controls with what seemed to be a candle stand. Upon damaging the controls the pads shut down.

A few moments later Spike enters the room accompanied with two guards. "Hey, hey, what are you doing?" He asks with a raised voice.

Bright quickly steps to Spike and leans very closely to him. "Listen here boy, you must tell Princess Twilight to meet me at the meeting place, our very lives depend on it!" He says with a raised commanding voice.

Vulsegardt steps close to Fedor, looking at his right arm. Whatever Fedor was doing, something worked. His missing limb was replaced with a metallic hand. The fingers seemed to be thinner than before and above the palm there was a pressure gauge connecting Fedor's palm with his lower arm. Fedor's cut was replaced by a metal casing with a small hatch on the top. Above the casing, Vulsegardt notices blood coming out. She whimpers and tries to clean the blood.

"Wait, what happened? I thought you were off to warn Princess Cadence," Spike asks with confusion.

"They already got to the Crystal Empire," Bright answers as he begins to levitate Fedor's body. "I need to get these two out of town," He points to Fedor and Vulsegardt.

"I can give you a car," Spike offers.

"Yes, we need to leave immediately," Bright says. "You have to inform the Princess of this. They blamed Luna for doing something she hasn't done and they will use it against us."

"What did they accuse her of?" Spike asks.

Bright doesn't answer. "Just do it!" He raises his voice as he begins to leave the room with Fedor and Vulsegardt following.

Spike nods and follows Bright. The group walks down the long crystal hallway, upon reaching the exit door they notice several EarthGov soldiers already waiting for them aiming their weapons, blocking the exit.

Bright gasps and drops Fedor.

"By the order of the UNEE, Bright Judgement, Fedor Conhanger and Vulsegardt are to be returned to Canterlot," One of the soldiers says.

"This is the home of Princess Twilight Sparkle, EarthGov military is is not allowed in here!" Spike says with a raised voice as the accompanied guards aim their weapons towards the opposing group.

"Surrender the criminals or we will open fire!" the commanding soldier shouts.

Spike turns to the soldier, "Until the return of the Princess nothing wi-" Spike is cut of by fire from EarthGov's side, he gasps as he notices blood coming from his waist. He gasps and puts his hands on his wound and begins to shout, "Fire!"

Bright conjures a shield around the group as the two guards begin to fire back.

Vulsegardt begins to panic to the violence displayed to her, she grabs Fedor with her magic and begins to pull him in the opposite direction, away from the fighting. She opens a nearby window and throws Fedor through it. She quickly jumps through herself. Vulsegardt looks up and begins to examine the area where she is, she seemed to be on the left side of the castle not away from the village. Slightly relieved she begins to pull Fedor towards where she presumed was the town square, away from the castle.

"Help! Somepony please help!" She yells.

Several villagers stop and look at Vulsegardt with confusion.

In the crowd, Vulsegardt notices an human EarthGov soldier stepping out with a shotgun in his hand. The soldier quickly points his weapon at Vulsegardt. But before the soldier could pull the trigger, Vulsegardt attemtps to steal the weapon from the his hands with her magic. Unsuccessfully, she only manages to make the soldier miss, his grip was too strong to disarm.

Upon shooting, most villagers begin to scream and run away.

Suddenly in the ongoing struggle, a pot was thrown at the soldier, shattering on his skull, knocking him out.

Vulsegardt gasps and looks to the direction from which the pot flew from. She notices an Unicorn accompanied by a younger Unicorn.

"Oh thank the Godess, thank you!" Vulsegardt says with cheer. "I need help, please!"

The older Unicorn turns to the younger one. "Sweetie Belle go to the Boutique and wait there," She orders.

The younger Unicorn nods and runs away. The older one turns to Vulsegardt. "Is that human with you?" She asks as she is looking at Fedor.

"Yes, please, can you hide us?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Why did that soldier fire at you?" The Unicorn asks.

"They want to blame me for something I didn't do! We wanted to get help from Princess Twilight, but she wasn't here and they attacked the castle and I just... please..." Vulsegardt says as she is panting.

The Unicorn thinks for a moment. "Alright," the Unicorn replies. She steps next to Fedor and begins to drag his body with magic. "Help me with him, you can hide in my boutique," she says.

Vulsegardt nods with a smile and assists in dragging Fedor's body away from the small battle. They went around the city, behind the houses to avoid detection as several EarthGov troopers seemed to be entering Ponyville.

A few minutes later the group reaches a building that seemed to resemble as the mentioned boutique. The Unicorn opens the door and drags Fedor in. As Vulsegardt enters the Unicorn quickly shuts the door and closes the curtains.

"You just helped us, without even knowing who we are... Thank you." Vulsegardt says with an exhale.

"EarthGov isn't exactly welcome here and seeing them attack Twilight's castle, I'm more than wiling to help somepony get away," The Unicorn answers.

The Unicorn leads Vulsegardt, while dragging Fedor to the corner of the building where there was nothing but a small desk and a lamp on it. She moves the desk along with the carpet under it to reveal a small hatch on the ground.

The Unicorn opens the hatch and looks at Vulsegardt. "You can hide here," she says.

Vulsegardt nods and carefully moves Fedor down the small wooden stairs, the given hiding spot was a small room under the floor, similar to a basement but much smaller. It was full of fabric holders and other clothing accessories.

Vulsegardt lays Fedor on the ground and sits by him as the hatch slowly closes, taking the light away.

Chapter 12 - The wagon

Three knocks are heard above.

Vulsegardt shakes her head and looks up, realizing that she fell asleep on the ground. "Uhm..." She mutters as she didn't know how to respond. "Hello?"

The hatch opens and light enters the small room. From the entrance, Vulsegardt sees an Unicorn staring down at her. It was the mare who saved her and Fedor the day before.

"You two must be hungry," the mare said as she climbed down the small staircase, while levitating a tray of food behind her. She puts down the food next to Vulsegardt. "You should really eat darling," she says.

Before answering, Vulsegardt turns around and steps to Fedor, checking his well being. He seemed to be unconscious, breathing in a slow manner.

"Thanks for the help..." Vulsegardt stutters, she didn't know her saviours name. "I'm sorry what's your name?" she asks with slight embarrassment.

"You're welcome," the mare responds with a smile. "My name is Rarity and the filly upstairs is my sister Sweetie Belle," she introduces.

Vulsegardt smiles. "My name is Vulsegardt and my friend is Fedor, thank you again for saving us," she says. "But, why did you help us, if I may ask? You don't exactly know us," Vulsegardt asks.

"Well, since Brian Matthias, EarthGov isn't exactly welcome in Ponyville you know. And seeing them barge in here shooting at Twilight's castle made everypony panic. That's when I saw you dragging you friend out of there, makes sense that the only right thing would be to help," Rarity answers.

"So you helped us, because you don't like EarthGov?" Vulsegardt asks.

"You can say that," Rarity smirks.

Vulsegardt gently shakes her head and turns back to Fedor. She begins to faintly shake his head in attempt to wake him up, but nothing happens. In worry, Vulsegardt begins to shake in a faster manner, with again, no success.

"Is he alright?" Rarity asks with slight doubt.

"Yes, he's fine! He's still breathing, he's fine," Vulsegardt answers with worry.

Rarity quietly cringes as she approaches Fedor, observing his recently replaced limb. "Why were those soldiers shooting at you in the first place?" she asks.

"EarthGov tricked us into doing something, then they beat us," Vulsegardt answers with a slight delay.

Rarity looks at Vulsegardt with wide eyes. "Why would they do such a horrible thing?" she asks with disgust.

"I don't know. Princess Luna got us out. We came here, because we thought it would be safe here, guess we were wrong," Vulsegardt says and sighs.

"Yes, I've seen you with her yesterday. Were you headed for the castle?" Rarity asks with curiosity.

"Yes," Vulsegardt answers. "We were trying to find Princess Twilight but she wasn't there. Next thing you know EarthGov was right behind us, shooting," she says.

Rarity thinks for a moment, examining Vulsegardt and Fedor for a second time. "You're looking for Twilight?" she asks.

"Yes," Vulsegardt answers with a nod.

"I'm sorry to say but, Twilight isn't in Ponyville. She left to Baltimare due to this, disease," Rarity says with a frown.

Vulsegardt sighs and sits down. The fear in her head was overwhelming, a week ago she was happily trotting down Canterlot with no worries and now she was running away from the government.

"You can stay here until she comes back, if you want," Rarity offers.

Vulsegardt takes a deep breath and shakes her head. "Celestia is dead," she says with a dark tone.

Rarity looks at Vulsegardt with confusion. She wasn't certain if she was crazy or not, but seeing Vulsegardt with Luna earlier made her think again. "So it's true. How could this have happened?

"An UNEE representative killed her," Vulsegardt answers. "They were holding me and my friend, beating us, they even took his arm," she goes on as she points to Fedor.

Rarity quietly gasps, "How vile!"

"He tried to replace it with a metal hand of some sorts, but he got injured in the process and he hasn't woken up since," Vulsegardt says with a sad tone. She was angry and scared at the same time. "What would grandpa think if he knew what I got myself into," she thought to herself. "I hope he's safe..."

"Darling," Rarity begins to speak while looking at Fedor. "Not to be rude or anything but, can we trust him?"

Vulsegardt gets up and looks at Rarity with a slightly agrivated face, "Of course we can! He saved my life! I'd be dead if it wasn't for him!" she responds loudly.

"You're right, I'm sorry," Rarity apologizes. "It's just that humans can be so aggressive, just look what they did to you," she says.

Vulsegardt pouts and turns back to Fedor. Although Rarity had a valid point, she couldn't ignore the fact that he saved her more than once. "Not all humans, it's only one that's corrupt," she says back. "And our luck just has it that the corrupt man has power," she says with a slightly angered voice.

"What if he turns?" Rarity asks.

Vulsegardt looks at Rarity with slight shock. Up until this point she hasn't realized that the dead transform to the monsters that have been chasing her and that she also could turn, if she was killed by one of them. "No," she said. "He is still breathing and his hearth is beating, he isn't dead," she says as she pouts.

"Then..." Rarity begins to speak. "When is he waking up?" she asks.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. She has no idea when Fedor will be waking up, the machine in the Crystal Empire seemed to have damaged him very badly. "I don't know, but you are not throwing him out," she responds with slight hostility.

Rarity looks at Vulsegardt slightly insulted but takes a deep breath and puts on a faint smile. "I don't want to throw him out, he's defenceless. But he isn't safe here, I have a friend where he could stay with until he wakes up."

"But he could wake up any moment!" Vulsegardt says as she slightly raises her voice.

Rarity cringes to Vulsegardt's statement pointing to Fedor's makeshift arm. The casing that connected his arm with the metal replacement seemed to be dripping blood.

Vulsegardt approaches Fedor and cleans the blood away with her hoof. "Well, he needs to see a doctor then!" she says loudly.

"With the Government looking for you? No, no, you can't have that, we have to get him out of town, you can stay here and tell Twilight what you need to say." Rarity insists as she declines Vulsegardt's request.

"Out of town?" Vulsegardt asks with a raised voice.

"I have a well protected friend not too far from Ponyville, we can take your friend there and have a doctor check him away from the soldiers," Rarity explains.

Vulsegardt thinks for a moment. This mare was being suspiciously nice. She looks up to her and asks, "And what do you gain from this?"

Rarity doesn't answer right away. She slowly tilts her head down, which sends Vulsegardt into worry.

"This happened before..." Rarity says as she stares at the ground. "EarthGov barged into Ponyville looking for a human. I saw him but didn't help him." She pauses and takes a deep breath before continuing, "If I would have helped him then, many bad things could have been avoided..."

Vulsegardt slightly shakes her head. She wasn't sure if this was just some story to cover up something she's hiding or that she's telling the truth. "She probably wouldn't take us in just to turn us in, that's stupid considering she attacked a soldier," she thought to herself. She looks up to Rarity, "I'm sorry, I should be thanking you, not act ungratefully," she apologizes.

Rarity smiles. "Don't worry, you're welcome. But I'll be honest, if I didn't see you with Luna yesterday, I would take you for a criminal and knocked you out," she says with a faint chuckle.

"Hmph, fair enough I suppose." Vulsegardt answers. "Where will you be taking him?"

"I have a friend who owns a farm a bit away from Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, if you ever heard of it," Rarity explains.

"Sweet Apple Acres?" Vulsegardt thought to herself. "Isn't that the farm with the electric fence around it? Applejack's farm?" she asks.

"You know Applejack? You aren't from around here are you? Cause I've never seen you before, " Rarity says as she looks at Vulsegardt with slight surprise.

"Yeah, me and Fedor stayed there not to long ago. Applejack and her brother saved us actually," Vulsegardt answers.

"Ah," Rarity nods, "That's good then, I had plans to visit Applejack for a while now, maybe I can convince her to smuggle your friend out," she explains as she begins to climb the stairs out of the room.

"Thank you Rarity," Vulsegardt repeats herself with a smile.

Rarity stops on the middle of the staircase. She looks down with a worried expression on her face.

"Are you alright?" Vulsegardt asks with worry.

"You're Saegward's granddaughter aren't you?" Rarity asks without making eye contact.

Upon hearing this Vulsegardt widens her eyes. Saegward was the guardian of the Canterlot royal archives, as well as her grandfather. "How do you know him?" she asks.

"Well," Rarity looks at Vulsegardt, "He is the guardian of the royal knowledge. But I've met him personally. He was here often, ordering dresses," she answers in a slow matter.

Vulsegardt looks at Rarity with confusion. "Dresses? He never was into fashion, so this kinda confuses me," she replies.

"He had a project with a human some time ago, they mentioned you too..." Rarity says.

"Is that why you helped us?" Vulsegardt says as she interrupts Rarity.

The white unicorn faintly smiles. "You really should eat," she says as she leaves the room, closing the hatch behind her.

Vulsegardt sighs and picks up the tray of food with her magic. She begins to eat, but stops after a few chews. She lays on the ground and stares at the ceiling. "What is going on?" she asks herself. "So much for those archives..." she sighs and looks at Fedor. After a few seconds of watching she sighs again and shakes her head.

A sound of the front door opening and closing can faintly be heard. "Probably Rarity leaving for Applejack," Vulsegardt thinks to herself, "Second time we'd be storming there, I wonder what they are going to think... Then again, I wonder why this Rarity is so much willing to help us." Upon thinking this she becomes worried. "No, selling us out would be stupid after attacking a soldier, ugh, what is happening?" she thinks with frustration.

After ten minutes of moping Vulsegardt notices a faint light coming from above. Someone opened the entrance hatch, but it wasn't Rarity. It was her sister, Sweetie Belle. She opened the hatch and put her head through the entrance.

Vulsegardt moved her eyes to her. They both stared at each other until Sweetie began to speak, "What happened to your friend?" she asks.

Vulsegardt for a few seconds, looks at Fedor then shifts her head back at the curious filly. "Shouldn't you be upstairs? I bet Rarity wouldn't like you speaking with us."

"You're not bad are you?" Sweetie asks after a short pause.

Vulsegardt faintly snickers. "If we were bad, then your sister probably wouldn't have taken us in," she answers.

"Well, that human was here before," Sweetie says as she points at Fedor. "I think..." she begins to doubt.

Vulsegardt looks at Sweetie with slight surprise. "Could be, do you know him?" she asks with curiosity.

Sweetie thinks for a moment. "I saw him on TV once too," she says.

Vulsegardt frowns as she stops taking Sweetie Belle seriously. She thought to herself that it would probably be best not to tell someone her age things that she went through, since she seemed to be of age fifteen or so.

The young mare goes curiously down the stairs to check her sister's visitors. She stops at the end of the stairs and looks at Vulsegardt with a worried expression on her face. "Is he going to be alright?" she asks.

Vulsegardt doesn't answer right away. "Your sister is going to get a doctor for him," she explains.

"How did he lose his hand?" Sweetie throws out another question.

Vulsegardt pouts. As she didn't have enough on her mind, now she has a filly reminding her of the problems she was trying to shake her mind of. But before she could say anything, she hears the front door open and close. Keeping her mouth shut Vulsegardt moves to the edge of the room, as she didn't know who entered.

"Sweetie Belle?" Rarity calls.

"I'm here!" Sweetie yells as she retrieves back upstairs.

Vulsegardt with relief slowly follows her. She needed a second for her eyes to adjust to the light again, but as soon as she regained vision, she noticed Applejack, Rarity and Big Macinsotsh standing in front of her.

The group silently stare at each other until Rarity begins to speak, "They came in with Luna and Celestia's right hoof yesterday looking for Twilight. That's when the shooting began."

Applejack's expression becomes less judgemental as she begins approaching Vulsegardt. "You alright?" she asks with concern.

"...No," Vulsegardt answers.

"It's alright, you're safe now." Applejack tries to reassure Vulsegardt.

"They beat us..." Vulsegardt says very quietly and looks on the ground.

"Sweetie darling, go upstairs, would you?" Rarity says as she turns to her sister.

Sweetie Belle nods and slowly goes away.

"Vulse, where is Fedor?" Applejack asks.

Vulsegardt doesn't answer.

"Downstairs, over there," Rarity says and points towards the hatch.

Applejack nods and looks at her brother. He nods back and heads downstairs. A few seconds later he returns with Fedor still unconscious on his back.

"We're gonna take care of your friend here, why don't you stay and tell Twilight what's going on when she comes back?" Applejack says with a faint smile.

Vulsegardt nods. Coming from Applejack, the offer seemed much more sincere than it did from Rarity, since she already found Applejack trustworthy. "That would be nice," she says.

"Rarity here will take good care of you, ah promise," Applejack says with a positive voice. "But you have to stay out off of sight until you can see Twilight."

Vulsegardt raises her head and asks, "Why?"

"Ponyville is full with EarthGov soldiers, best keeping a low profile til Twilight comes, she'll probably throw every single one out herself with what they did at the castle yesterday," Applejack explains.

Upon hearing this Rarity sighs and sits down on a nearby sofa.

"They seriously injured Twilight's right hoof and a couple of her guards. She probably won't take that lightly," Applejack continues with slight worry.

Big Macintosh interrupts the conversation with a cough to gain attention as he begins to speak, "AJ, we gotta go before those soldiers come back, they're swarming."

Vulsegardt becomes worried, "You're leaving already?"

"It's best to. Me and Big Mac hid a cart of fresh fruits and vegetables behind the boutique. We can hide your friend and smuggle him out of Ponyville. Then we can call the doc up to the farm," Applejack explains with haste.

"And why would so many ponies be interested in helping us? After we were declared murderers?" Vulsegardt asks cynically.

"Nopony in Ponyville likes EarthGov. And most seen you with Luna, the word spread faster then an infection of Parasprites. If you get Twilight's support, which you probably will it will be only a matter of time before she goes to a dimensional transporter and storms on Earth's government," Applejack replies.

To Vulsegardt it felt like a huge burden being removed from her mind. Once its proven that Ryan has had Celestia killed, she could finally wake up from this nightmare and get some peace. "Thank you, you're saving my life here," she says with a grateful smile.

Applejack nods and smiles back. "You take care now, probably best if you stay inside," she instructs.

"Alright," Vulsegardt replies.

"Okay, let's go Big Mac," she says as looks at her brother. "Take care Rarity," she says and leaves out of the front door.

Rarity stays silent.

"Eyup," Big Macintosh replies and follows.

As the front door closes Applejack and Big Macintosh quickly move behind the boutique where a wagon was placed. It was big enough to hold a large number of fruits and vegetables and probably a human. As Big Macintosh places Fedor in the half full wagon he looks at him with slight concern.

"He isn't dead right?" Big Mac asks.

Applejack sighs and moves to Fedor. She puts her hoof next to his face. "Well, he's still breathing, so I reckon he's okay. Come on, throw groceries on him, we ain't got much time!" she says quietly.

Big Mac nods and both he and his sister begin to place fruits, vegetables and empty sacks on Fedor to cover him up.

After Fedor is buried under all the groceries Applejack looks at her brother and asks, "He can still breathe right?"

"I think so," He replies as he attaches the wagon steer to his back.

"Alright, now move slowly and casually we need to blend in," Applejack says as they begin to move.

They begin walking down a road away from Rarity's boutique. They entered the village, passing what mostly seemed like a dead town. Most houses were closed down and had a black flag above their entrance door, probably to show grief to the recent events. "Everypony is hiding inside terrified, no wonder we haven't sold much today," Applejack complains.

Just when it seemed like an easy path to the gates a small group of EarthGov soldiers appear from the corner heading towards Applejack and Big Macintosh. Since they didn't seem alarmed, both Apples remained calm and stopped.

One of the human soldiers pulls out three small photos from his pocket and almost shoves them into Applejack's face. It were pictures of Fedor, Vulsegardt and Bright Judgement. "Have you seen anyone in this town that matches the description on these photographs?" He asks.

"They were here yesterday," Big Mac jumps in before Applejack could say anything.

The soldiers turn their attention to the brother. "And have you seen any of these people recently?" one of the soldiers asks.

"Eenope," Big Mac responds.

"Make sure to report to the nearest EarthGov station or officer if you do. Have a nice day," The soldier grunts as he leaves along with his group.

"Phew, that sure went better than expected. Thanks brother," Applejack says with relief.

"Well, you are a terrible liar," Big Mac jokes as be begins moving again.

Applejack smirks, "Ha. It wasn't called the element of honesty for nothin you know."

After a small chuckle they moved on trying to act as casual as possible to avoid getting attention from the big number of EarthGov soldiers that were constantly around them. They reach one of the Ponyville wall gates. Surrounded by Ponyville guard they are again halted by authority.

A friendly looking earth pony guard approaches Applejack and Big Macintosh. "Hey guys, done for today?" he asks.

"Yeah, gotta get home before dark. I hate leaving Apple Bloom alone," Applejack says with a worried voice.

"Of course," the guard says with an understanding voice. "Krater! Open the gates!" He yells to a guard in the watchtower.

A few seconds later the gates begin to rise.

"Be careful out there guys. Things are getting crazy, its almost every town for themselves. You're lucky you got a fence protecting your farm." the guard says as he escorts Applejack and Big Mac through the wall.

"Thanks Caramel, we will." Applejack replies with a smile.

"Halt!" A voice is heard and not long after an EarthGov soldier follows. "You haven't inspected these people guard," he says to the wall guard named Caramel.

"Inspection?" Caramel asks. They are just merchants.

"Top order from EarthGov. All Ponyville residents must be halted for inspection and questioning about the criminals that arrived here yesterday," The soldier explained.

"Hey! What's taking so long?" A yell is heard from the watchtower.

The EarthGov soldier turns around and focuses his attention to the watchtower. "These people are being halted for inspection," he says.

A human looks out of the watchtowers windows and begins to yell, "Inspection? How about you Canterlot assholes go from where you came from and stop bothering us, opening the gates attracts the dead. But I'm sure you wouldn't know anything about that."

"Krater, not again!" Caramel shouts.

The soldier looks up to the human guard staring down at him. "Are you disobeying a direct order from EarthGov?"

"You sure as shit I am! Just who the hell do you think you people are coming here shooting at us good folk? The gates are going down, there ain't no time for your bullshit. Keep stalling and these merchants ain't getting home alive," the guard named Krater insists.

As the two soldiers begin to argue Caramel approaches Big Macintosh. "Great, Krater is at it again." He says and sighs.

"Ugh, not to be a drag, but we really should be going," Big Mac says being slightly nervous.

"Ah, we should wait to see what they want," Caramel reluctantly says and leans against the cart.

As Caramel leans on the cart he notices something that wasn't a food product in the wagon. With curiosity he moves a few products, noticing Fedor's fingers sticking out. With shock, Caramel turns to Big Mac and begins to silently speak, "Big Mac, what the hay is this?"

Big Mac turns to the confused guard. "Caramel, you have to let us through, EarthGov killed Celestia and now they want to blame it on Luna!" He answers quietly.

"Is this the man that came with Luna yesterday?" Caramel asks as he stares at Big Mac.

Big Mac nods. "He can speak with Twilight when she comes back," he says.

"How can you even be sure of this?" Caramel quickly asks.

"Rarity said she knows him. And they were with Luna yesterday trying to find Twilight. Who are you gonna trust, our protectors or some humans with guns?" Big Macintosh answers with a question.

"I will come down there and beat your ass if you don't get the hell back in right now! We already got enough wounded from your stupid ass shoutout, we don't need the dead on our walls again!" Krater shouts back at the EarthGov soldier.

"You won't be screaming like that when I report this to your officer!" The EarthGov soldier threatens. After a grunt he turns to Caramel and asks, "Do these people have any connections with the criminals reported from yesterday?"

Applejack's and Big Mac's hearths were beating like they just ran a marathon, Caramel's word could practically end their lives.

After a little while Caramel shakes his head and answers, "No, just simple food merchants. Locals."

The guard pulls out the photographs of Vulsegardt, Fedor and Bright Judgement. And just like the guard before, he asks the same question, "Have you seen anyone on these pictures in the past twenty-four hours?"

"We already said we didn't to the last soldiers," Applejack says with a slightly nervous voice.

"Very well then. If you do, be sure to contact us," The soldier says and leaves back into Ponyville.

"Thanks," Both Applejack and Big Mac say as they begin to distance away from Ponyville.

Caramel sighs as he re-enters Ponyville. Shortly later the gates come down, closing the way.

"Would you believe that asswipe Caramel? They come here acting like we shit in their cereal or something," Krater complains as he climbs down the ladder.

"Hey Krater, do you really think Luna killed her own sister?" Caramel asks with a calm voice.

"What?" Krater asks with slight surprise. "Not really, it doesn't make any sense, sure raised a big storm though." he answers.

"How so?" Caramel asks.

"I heard they killed the royal dragon, when Twilight comes back home, shit is gonna hit the fan.

"Good," Caramel replies. "At least now I know I haven't done a mistake."

Chapter 13 - Tired and Angry

Back in the boutique, Vulsegardt and Rarity were sitting in the small storage room on a mattress playing cards with magic on the floor alongside candles.

"How long until she comes back?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Twilight? Could be today, could be tomorrow, of that I am uncertain." Rarity responds.

"I want this put behind me, the things I went through over the past few days," Vulsegardt cynically says as she rubs her cheek, where she received a cut in Canterlot.

"Must have been horrible, beyond describing with words," Rarity says with a frown.

Vulsegardt closes her eyes. She remembers the moment when the EarthGov agent named Lilith rammed a bone-saw through Fedor's arm. He was screaming, blood was rushing down and all she did was sit on the ground barely keeping it together, too afraid to do anything. She opens her eyes with a disgusted expression on her face.

"I'm sorry," Rarity apologizes. "It would be best to forget about such things, Twilight won't let this go uncorrected," she says with a determined voice.

"And what is Princess Twilight going to do?" Vulsegardt asks cynically.

"She will be angry. Very angry. I don't know what is going to happen," Rarity answers with uncertainty.

Vulsegardt sighs. "I'm still processing everything. I was supposed to be on a harmless expedition, not a suicide mission," she pouts.

"Do you think your friend got out? Rarity asks.

"Fedor? I hope so, he's a good person," Vuslegardt replies.

"His name is Fedor?" Rarity asks with surprise.

"Fedor Conhanger," Vulsegardt answers. "Engineering Prodigy," she says.

Rarity thinks for a few moments. "He reminded me on somepony else," she says with intrigue.

"Your sister said something that he was here before," Vulsegardt states after remembering her conversation with Sweetie Belle earlier.

Rarity thinks for a few moments. "Must have been somepony else," she replies.

Meanwhile upstairs the doorbell rings.

Rarity quickly looks up and heads her way upstairs. "Wait here and don't make any noise," she says as she closes the storage room hatch.

Rarity approaches the door and slowly opens it. "Oh, Caramel. It's you," she says with relief.

The guard who allowed Applejack and Big Macintosh to smuggle Fedor enters the boutique. "Yeah, sorry if, I'm interrupting but, you didn't by any chance seen any wanted criminals who supposedly killed Celestia haven't you?" he asks nervously.

Rarity looks at Caramel with a serious expression on her face. She waits for a few moments before speaking, "Why would you ask me something like that?" she asks.

"It just so happens that Applejack and her brother smuggled the human criminal out of Ponyville a few hours ago," he answers, still nervously.

"Is that so?" Rarity asks with intrigue.

"I let them leave," Caramel says with worry. "They said that you knew him! Please tell me that I haven't done the wrong thing, I don't believe Luna killed Celestia, I swear!" He says trembling with fear.

"Easy Caramel, take a breath!" Rarity says trying to calm the scared guard.

"You first," Caramel responds as he is trying to catch his breath.

Rarity closes the front door behind Caramel and checks the windows if there is anybody around. After seeing nobody, she turns to Caramel and begins to speak, "They were here yes. One got injured and had to be moved," Rarity answers.

"Oh, thank Celestia. I thought I made a horrible mistake. So, where's the other one? The unicorn?" Caramel asks with relief.

"She's around," Rarity replies. "She has to stay hidden until Twilight comes back. She won't stand for this!" She says with an upset voice.

"I... I heard what happened at the castle," Caramel begins to speak.

"Shut up!" Rarity stops Caramel from speaking. "Just... Don't..." she says slowly.

"I'm sorry," Caramel says with sympathy.

"Get out," Rarity pushes Caramel. She opens the door with her magic and points outside with her hoof. "Get out, you got what you were looking for now leave!" she repeats herself.

Caramel shakes his head and slowly leaves the boutique.

After hearing the door close, Vulsegardt climbs up the stairs and opens the storage hatch enough to peek out.

Rarity sighs and sits down on the sofa that was in the corner. She begins to sob as she puts her hooves on her face.

Vulsegardt slowly opens the hatch and crawls out. After closing the curtains on the windows she sits on the sofa next to Rarity. "What happened?" She asks.

Rarity sighs again and shakes her head. "A friend of mine died yesterday," she answers.

Vulsegardt looks on the ground and pouts. "It's my fault, they were here because of us," she said.

Rarity doesn't reply. She stays still on the couch, continuing to sob.

"I'm so sorry," Vulsegardt says with regret.

"You never do begin to truly appreciate something until its gone," Rarity says depressively.

After that, time for Vulsegardt went much slower that it actually did. She spent most of her time in the storage room, looking at the ceiling thinking. Occasionally, Sweetie Belle could be heard upstairs, but that was just about it.

She lays back and closes her eyes, going to sleep.

She opens her eyes the next day when hearing someone entering the boutique through the front door. Before getting up, she notices someone opening the storage room hatch and stepping down the stairs. It was a human with a rifle on his back.

Vulsegardt gasps and quickly gets up, she lights up her horn to shoot a bolt of magic but the human already raises his hands. "Whoa there killer, I ain't here to hurt you," he says.

After a few seconds Vulsegardt examines the guard. He seemed to be at the age of 45, had a beard and wore armour with Ponyville emblems on it.

Rarity slowly follows down the stairs.

"This her?" the human asks.

"Yes," Rarity answers.

"I knew EearthGov was full of shit, they always are," the human complains.

"Who are you?" Vulsegardt asks.

"My name is Krater, apparently I accidentally smuggled enemies of EarthGov out of Ponyville yesterday," he says with a smile.

Vulsegardt exhales with relief. "Don't humans have two names?" she asks.

"My name is James," he said. "But people call me Krater."

Vulsegardt looks at Krater with wide eyes. "You helped getting Fedor out of Ponyville? So, he's out?" she asks.

"Yeah, AJ and Big Mac smuggled him out with a foodcart," Krater answers.

"Oh, thank Celestia," Vulsegardt says with relief.

"Just wanted to see you with my own eyes," Krater says.

"What for?" Vulsegardt asks.

Krater smirks. "They are blaming you for assisting in political assassination. But did you see it? Did you see them kill Celestia?" he asks with curiosity.

"No," Vulsegardt answers. "But when Luna saved me and my friend, she and Bright Judgement said that they saw it," she says.

"Good enough for me. Fucking EarthGov. I mean, Brian Matthias was a crazy fuck, why didn't they assume his right hand Atlax would be too after taking over?" Krater says as he looks at Rarity.

"What did Brian do?" Vulsegardt asks.

"He personally stormed Ponyville with some crazy magic shit few years back," Krater replies.

"You really seem to dislike EarthGov. Funny, since you're a human," Vulsegardt says.

Krater stares at Vulsegardt for a few seconds. "Funny?" Krater asks.

"Ahem," Rarity interrupts.

"Oh yeah, of course," Krater says. "Princess Twilight is coming back from Baltimare in a few hours, I was asked to convince you to speak to her about the stuff you went through," he explains.

"Convince? Are you serious? They beat me and cut my friend's hand off! Of course I'll speak to the Princess!" Vulsegardt replies loudly.

"We don't know how is she gonna react though," Krater says.

Vulsegardt looks at the human with confusion. "What do you mean?" she asks.

Rarity takes a deep breath. "A friend went with her and messaged ahead. She is furious," she replies.

"I think I would be furious as well," Vulsegardt answers.

"Yeah well, this is extra pissed of. The problem comes when you are reminded with the fact that Princess Twilight and Ryan Atlax are good friends," Krater says he pouts.

"But Luna can prove otherwise!" Vulsegardt says with an upset voice.

"Luna isn't here Vulsegardt," Rarity says with a worried voice.

Krater grunts. "It's easy to frame her though. Luna has tried to kill Celestia two times before she calmed down," he says.

"But do you really believe that Twilight would take Ryan's side over Luna's?" Rarity cynically asks.

As the two begin to argue, all hopes that Vulsegardt has had, have suddenly vanished. She was afraid again, not knowing if she is even going to get alive through the week.

"I didn't do anything!" Vulsegardt screams.

Both Krater and Rarity look at Vulsegardt with pity.

"I've seen Spike bleed to death in the castle, I tried to keep him alive but by the time we came in the castle to see what the hell is going on, he already bled to death," Krater says with a serious voice. "Damnit, this was because of EarthGov! And who represents EarthGov of the UNEE in Equestria? Ryan fucking Atlax." He continues with an angry voice.

Upon hearing this, Rarity sighs and looks away.

Krater kneels and puts his hands on Vulsegardt's shoulders. "She'll believe you. She won't stand for this shit, no matter how much of friends they are," he says with confidence.

Vulsegardt faintly smiles with her newly acquired relief. "You sure?" she asks.

Krater nods, smiles and stands up. "I should go, not a good idea to leave Caramel alone at the gate, " he says as he begins to climb up the stairs. "You stay alive now," he says before leaving the boutique.

Rarity grunts as she leaves the storage room and heads upstairs.

Vulsegardt silently observes the sad mare as she leaves. After her departure Vulsegardt sighs and sits down. "When are we going to get a break?" she asks herself angrily.

A couple of hours later Sweetie Belle appears on the top of the staircase again. "Hi," she says.

Vulsegardt looks up and fakes a smile. "Hey Sweetie Belle," she replies.

"Do you mind company? Rarity doesn't seem to want any," Sweetie says.

"Sure," Vulsegardt says and the filly begins to cheerfully climb down the stairs.

"So, what's up?" the little filly asks with a smile.

"I don't know how to answer that," Vulsegardt answers with uncertainty.

"Everything is going to be alright, right?" Sweetie asks worryingly.

"I hope so. Seems like there is something bad around every corner," Vulsegardt replies.

Suddenly someone slowly knocks on the front door.

Sweetie gasps and quickly begins to go upstairs. "Wait here," she says as she climbs up.

"Rarity!" Sweetie yells.

A couple of seconds later the older sister rushes to the lobby.

"Go upstairs Sweetie." Rarity orders.

"B-but it's Twilight." Sweetie replies.

"Now, Sweetie Belle!" Rarity raises her voice.

Sweetie reluctantly obeys, she leaves and goes upstairs with a frown on her face.

As her sister leaves, Rarity takes a deep breath and opens the door. "Twilight?"

Suddenly Vulsegardt couldn't hear any more talking. With confusion she climbs the stairs in hope that she could see what's going on. As she peeks her head out of the hole she notices Rarity hugging with Princess Twilight. They were both quiet, silently crying.

As the hug breaks, the purple Alicorn sets her vision to the curious eavesdropper. "Is that her?" She asks with slight anger.

Rarity turns around and nods, "Yes, that's her."

For a few seconds Twilight stares at Vulsegardt with a frown on her face. "Come out," she says.

Vulsegardt gulps and slowly climbs out of the storage room. She began to slowly approach the Princess. The Alicorn was angry and Vulsegardt was well aware of that. "H-hello," she greets.

For a few seconds they just stared at each other. As Vulsegardt tried to break the silence again, she suddenly feels a strong force on her body as she gets knocked down.

It was Twilight. With her magic, she tripped Vulsegardt and is holding her down. "I was told to give you the right to speak, so what are you waiting for? Speak! Tell me everything!" she says with a hostile voice.

"Ryan Atlax did it! He killed Celestia and is trying to blame it on Luna!" Vulsegardt quickly answers.

"Likely story," Twilight replies. "On what proof?"

"Princess Luna and Bright Judgement can confirm everything!" Vulsegardt replies.

"Is that so?" Twilight asks. "Tell me, where are Luna and Bright then? I don't see them."

As the question was given, Vulsegardt could feel a slight force pressing around her neck. "Half of Ponyville saw me with them... Rarity has seen me with them!" she says and points at Rarity, while having trouble breathing.

"It's true Twilight, they were together," Rarity confirms.

Twilight grunts and releases Vulsegardt from her magic.

As the force goes away, Vulsegardt gets up and takes a few deep breaths, "Bright told your dragon to tell you that you need to go to the meeting place."

Suddenly, Twilight's face became less aggressive and more worried. "The meeting place? And are you sure that he said that?" she asks.

"Yes. That's when EarthGov came. They attacked the castle. I don't know where Luna and Bright are, I was barely able to get my friend out, so give me a break already!" Vulsegardt replies with a raised voice.

Upon hearing this, Twilight sits on the ground and puts her hoof on her face. She sat there silently for a few seconds before sighing in a depressive manner.

"I-I'm very sorry for your loss," Vulsegardt says with a frown.

"She is telling the truth Twilight," Rarity says as she puts her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"How can you be sure?" Twilight replies.

"I am sure because Luna would never do such a thing. She isn't Nightmare Moon anymore," Rarity answers.

"Luna also said something about Atlax having Tirek's stone, do you know anything about that?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Tirek's stone," Twilight says and begins to think. After a few seconds she looks at Vulsegardt with a scared face. "I do. And it's nothing good," she says and grunts as she stands up. "I have to leave Ponyville," she says as she wipes the tears off her face.

"What? Why? But you barely returned!" Rarity asks with confusion.

"If there is any chance that Bright and Luna are waiting for me, I have to take it," Twilight explains as she begins to move towards the front door.

"What about me? EarthGov is still looking for me," Vulsegardt says.

"I kicked them out. As long as you're in Ponyville you should be safe," Twilight replies. She opens the door with her magic and exits the boutique. "Stay safe Rarity," she says before leaving.

After the door was closed everything was silent for a few seconds.

"Thank Celestia, this went better than I thought it would," Vulsegardt says with relief.

"I should check on Applejack," Rarity says with a worried voice. "Make sure she and your friend are alright, Twilight will probably want to meet him when she returns," Rarity explains.

"Yeah, I hope they're alright," Vulsegardt agrees.

"Do you mind keeping an eye on Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asks with slight concern.

"Of course," Vulsegardt replies.

Rarity nods and puts a backpack on with her magic. As she begins to make her way out she begins to speak, "Don't open the door for anypony."

Vulsegardt looks at Rarity with confusion. "Didn't Twilight throw EarthGov out of Ponyville?" she asks.

"Better safe than sorry darling," Rarity replies. She opens the door and leaves the boutique. "I'll be back before the sun goes down," she says as she leaves.

Vulsegardt closes the door with her magic. A few seconds later she could hear Sweetie behind her, "Where is she going?"

"To Applejacks," Vulsegardt answers.

"Oh come on! Why can she be allowed to Applejack and I can't go to Apple Bloom?" the white filly complains.

"It's to dangerous out there Sweetie Belle, you're safer here," Vulsegardt says.

Sweetie Belle sighs. "Ever since she heard about what happened to Spike she hasn't been herself, she cried herself to sleep yesterday you know," Sweetie says.

Vulsegardt looks on the ground. She felt like this was her fault and that feeling was making her feel devastated. Fedor, Celestia, Spike, everything that happened, she couldn't help herself but to blame herself. "And that's why Rarity wants you here. Safe," she says with a sad tone.

"But..." Sweetie begins to speak but is quickly stopped by Vulsegardt, "No. No buts. Rarity will be fine, the human with the beard will probably escort her."

Sweetie grunts. "Krater? He better," she says and leaves upstairs.

Vulsegardt sighs, sits down on a sofa and lays down. "I'm sorry," she says to herself. "I could've said no and this wouldn't..." she smirks and sighs again.

For a few minutes Vulsegardt laid there, regretting that she accepted Atlax's job offer in the first place. She grunts and turns around, looking through the window that was next to the sofa. She sees an orange pegasus looking back at her. Vulsegardt quickly gets up and opens the window with her magic. "Who are you and what do you want?" she asks with an unfriendly voice.

"Uhh," the pegasus mutters. "I'm friends with Sweetie Belle, is she home?"

The pegasus seemed to be the same age as Sweetie, so Vulsegardt wasn't alarmed. "Yeah, come in," Vulsegardt says. "Sweetie Belle? There's somepony here to see you," she says with a raised voice. "Don't do anything dumb," she tells the filly with a serious tone.

After a few seconds, Sweetie Belle rushes down the stairs and opens the front door. "Hi Scootalo, been up the wall yet?" she asks with a sad voice.

"Yeah, Krater told me everything and Dash confirmed it," Scootalo replies as she sets her eyes on Vulsegardt. "Hey, who's that?" she asks quietly, but still loud enough for Vulsegardt to hear. "She's friends with Rarity. Come on, let's go upstairs," Sweetie says and the fillies begin to move.

"I'm worried about Apple Bloom, is she alright?" Scootalo asks with concern.

"Rarity went to see Applejack not to long ago, guess we'll find out when she comes back." Sweetie answers.

A door shuts and voices were no longer heard.

Vulsegardt sighs and closes her eyes. She was upset and tired, a nap was well needed. She tilts her head back and begins to do exactly that.

After some time Vulsegardt opens her eyes and looks around. She notices snow falling on her snout. "Snow? But it's October!" she says and gets up. She observes the place she was put in and gathers that she is at the Crystal Empire. But it was different, it was utterly destroyed, in ruins along with the snow.

"No..." Vulsegardt says with fear. "This isn't real, this isn't real, it's just a dream Vulse, it's just a dream," she tries to convince herself. As she is muttering to herself she notices an unicorn standing in the middle of the ruins. Vulsegardt takes a breath and begins to shout, "Hey! You! Wait!" as she begins to approach the stranger.

The unicorn was silent. She was facing her with its back, silently observing the ruins.

Vulsegardt stops and examines the silent mare. She couldn't see who it was, but she did get a glance of the outfit that the she was wearing. She had a purple cloak that was covered with crimson writing identical to the runes that Vulsegardt ha seen at Ares. Upon noticing this, she looks at the mare with slight hostility and asks,"Who are you?"

The unicorn does not respond. Before Vulsegardt could take another step, the mare's horn glows purple, seconds before she evaporates, disappearing.

Vulsegardt sighs, "Great."

Not to far from where she was standing, Vulsegardt could hear growling, she looks to see what it is, only to see that it's a small group of the undead slowly approaching her. She gasps and steps back, "Okay Vulse, you can wake up now," she whimpers to herself as she closes her eyes.

One of the creatures dashes forward and raises its mutilated arm to attack, but just before it could stab the scared mare, Vulsegardt opens her eyes, waking up.

Vulsegardt sighs with relief and stands up. "Sweetie Belle? Rarity?" she calls but receives no answer.

She gets up from the sofa and looks around the boutique, "Sweetie Belle, are you upstairs?"

No answer.

With a worried expression on her face, she quickly trots upstairs in attempt to find the young filly, but every room she has entered was empty. "Oh crap, where are you?" Vulsegardt mutters to herself, worryingly.

The last room she opens catches her attention. It was full of plastic models, used to carry dresses and clothing. One of the models particularly got her attention, "Wait a minute, I've seen this before," she says as she approaches a model. The model wore the same purple dress covered in runes that she saw in her dreams not to long ago.

"What?" Vulsegardt wonders as she approaches the cloak. She examines the runes on the dress, but a particular line of runes caught her attention. "Saegward? Grandpa?!" she says as she widens her eyes.

"What the hay is this?" Vulsegardt asks herself loudly. "Rarity. She knows something and she sure as hay had a good reason when she helped us, I knew it!"

Suddenly a loud scream is heard from downstairs, "Vulsegardt help!"

Vulsegardt turns around and almost instantly recognises the voice, "Sweetie Belle?" she says and quickly begins to rush downstairs.

When she arrives to the lobby of the boutique she gasps as she sees Sweetie Belle, bruised, struggling to break free from an EarthGov human soldier.

"Hey! Let her go!" Vulsegardt threatens as her horn lights up.

Suddenly, she could feel a force appearing in the room, almost as if someone teleported right behind her, but before she could turn around she is hit on her face and falls down.

As she slowly tilts her head to see her attacker she hears a familiar, sinister voice, "Howdy sister."

It was Lilith.

Chapter 14 - Five minute silence

Game over, Vulsegardt thought to herself. She knew that she wasn't going to get off the hook that easy, but thought that at least, she would have more time. "What now?" she thinks to herself. With the guard holding Sweetie Belle hostage, Vulsegardt didn't dare to fight back. She just tilts her head towards Lilith and says, "I thought you were dead."

Lilith smirks. "Aww, aren't you happy to see me? Cause I know one person who will be very happy to see you," she says with a malicious smile on her face. "Tell me dear, where is your one handed friend Freddy?" she asks.

Vulsegardt didn't answer. She stared at Lilith with with an angered expression on her face.

Lilith smirks and looks at the guard holding Sweetie Belle and nods. The guard drags Sweetie to the nearest wall and slams her head against it. Sweetie responds with a cry of pain, followed by sobbing.

"No!"Vulsegardt shouts. "Leave her alone!"

"Where's your friend Vulse?" Lilith asks again, this time with a bit more serious voice.

Vulsegardt looks on the ground and begins to fake sobbing. "He died," she said, "Because of you! He bled out shortly after we left Canterlot!" she shouts.

Lilith smiles. "Nice try," she says as she smacks Vulsegardt on her face. "If he was dead we'd know that by now, but that's alright, he'll come after you and when he does, we'll be waiting," she says as she pulls out her revolver out of her holster. "Get up," she orders.

Vulsegardt sighs with defeat and reluctantly rises.

"Let's go," Lilith orders the soldier and the group begins to move out. Shortly after they leave the boutique Vulsegardt notices several Ponyville citizens, along with Ponyville and EarthGov soldiers, dead laying on the ground. She gasps as she sees Caramel, the orange guard pony dead, laying among the several other bodies. Vulsegardt stops and observes him with sorrow.

"Keep moving," Lilith says as she pushes Vulsegardt.

Vulsegardt looks at Lilith with hatred but continues to move. As group moved towards the wall entrance for a few minutes, they encountered nobody. Ponyville was silent, only the sound of the dead rising could be heard.

The group stops as one of the dead Ponyville human soldiers on the ground suddenly begins to twitch. He begins to shake, similar to having a seizure, before their arms fall off, splattering blood everywhere as they were replaced with sharp sword like bones. Vulsegardt gasps as the creature stands up, growls and begins to charge toward the group, but before it could reach them, its skull gets penetrated by Lilith's revolver shot. "Step up people, we'll have to leave this party early," Lilith says as the creature falls back down.

The group continues on until they reach one of the wall gates. There, two EarthGov soldiers were already waiting. As the group approached, they begin to turn the gate's controls and the gate begins to rise.

When the gate was half lifted, Vulsegardt hears a screaming voice, "Motherfucker!" She turns around to see who it was, as one of the EarthGov soldiers is suddenly shot in the head and falls down.

Lilith pushes Vulsegardt on the ground and begins to fire back, along with the soldier that wasn't holding Sweetie Belle.

The attacker hides behind a couple of barrels in attempt to avoid fire.

As Vulsegardt raises her head, she notices that the attacker was actually the bearded human that visited her in Rarity's boutique, Krater. As Lilith and the soldier seemed to be busy shooting at Krater, Vulsegardt gets up and begins to run by the side in attempt to run away. "This is my chance, I need to get to Sweet Apple Acres," she though to herself. Her attempt fails as she was quickly intercepted by one of the dead. As she turns around, she is kicked by the snout and falls back on the ground.

Lilith picks Vulsegardt up and lifts her arms with a stone in her hand. The stone begins to glow and Vulsegardt feels a strong magical force which teleports both Lilith and her across the wall.

"Forget it boys, let the dead have him!" Lilith shouts as she violently drags Vulsegardt to a truck that was parked near the gate.

Vulsegardt kicks Lilith in the knee and breaks free of her grip. She begins to run but is quickly intercepted by Lilith as she teleports in front of her and kicks her in the torso. Vulsegardt falls down and before she could get a chance of doing anything, Lilith smacks her snout several times until she begins to bleed and even then she keeps hitting until Vulsegardt completely stops resisting.

As the beaten mare seemed to have surrendered, she quickly begins to resist again when held but was unable to break free, Lilith's grip on her was too strong this time. She found herself unable to use magic, every time her horn glowed nothing happened. She, along with Sweetie Belle were thrown into the back of the truck.

Lilith dashes forward and begins to hit on the trucks wall with her revolver. After a few seconds the truck begins to move and the doors close.

The last thing Vulsegardt saw was Krater running with a rifle towards them with a furious expression on his face .

****

Vulsegardt concentrates and her horn begins to glow, lighting up her new prison.

"Sweetie Belle?" a voice is heard from the back.

"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle shouts with joy as she jumps into her sister's hooves. "I thought they hurt you like the rest. They... They killed Caramel," she says as she begins to cry.

"I'm alright Sweetie. Thank Celestia you're alright," Rarity replies as she hugs her sister.

Vulsegardt found that hard to believe, since Rarity was also covered in blood and bruises. "What did they do to you?" she asks with concern.

For a short time Rarity stayed silent. She looks at Lilith and then at Vulsegardt. "They caught me while was taking a walk outside of the walls," she answers.

"And why were you outside the walls?" Lilith asks.

"As I said, I went for a walk," Rarity replies while looking on the ground.

Lilith smirks. "And that's why you have bruises on your pretty little face," she says as she pulls out a walkie talkie. She presses the button on it and begins to speak, "Rex, I want you to sweep the entire area, bring me Fedor Conhanger and bring him, alive," Lilith orders.

"Yes ma'am," a voice is heard on the talkie and Lilith puts it back in her pocket.

"Why are you doing this?" Vulsegardt asks with a raised voice while facing Lilith.

For a few seconds, Lilith stares at Vulsegardt with a malicious smile on her face before beginning to speak, "Because... It's fun."

"Fun?" Vulsegardt says with disgust. "Are you utterly insane?!" she asks with a raised voice.

"Wouldn't you rather tell me where your friend Fedor is, Vulsie? I can assure you that it would be better for you if you'd just say it now," Lilith asks casually.

"I already told you that you killed him!" Vulsegardt shouts and takes a step towards Lilith but stops as the soldier who was also in the truck aims his rifle at her.

Lilith chuckles. "I see that getting your cooperation will be a bit more... interesting." she says with

another evil smile, "A bit more fun."

"You're a monster," Vulsegardt says.

Lilith sighs, "Have it your way," she says and smiles as she pulls out her teleportation stone and vanishes.

Vulsegardt sighs and sits down. She touches her snout but grunts shortly after, half of her snout on her left size was completely blue from Lilith's abuse.

"Why did they do this to us Rarity? We haven't done anything wrong, we shouldn't be here!" Sweetie Belle asks as she sobs.

"I don't know Sweetie, but it's all going to be alright, I promise," Rarity replies with a smile.

"But why would they keep you two alive after they've killed so many others?" Vulsegardt joins the conversation.

Rarity doesn't answer. She silently stares at Vulsegardt with wide eyes, mimicking that she should stop speaking.

Vulsegardt grunts and leans next to the wall, "What now?" she thinks to herself as she closes her eyes.

***

For an unknown amount of time later Vulsegardt opens her eyes and shakes her head and touches her snout, only to feel pain in it again. She looks around the truck noticing that the soldier who was watching them wasn't there anymore.

Before Vulsegardt could ask, Rarity begins to speak, "They stopped and dropped a few off," she said.

Vulsegardt gets up and silently crawls next to Rarity. "Rarity, what the hay is going on?" she asks silently.

"They waited for Twilight to leave. Disturbed the northern wall and swarmed right in from the southern," Rarity replies. "Tell me, your human friend is named Fedor Conhanger correct?" she asks.

"Yes?" Vulsegardt answers with suspicion.

"Are you sure?" Rarity asks again.

"I am." Vulsegardt replies. "Rarity, why did you really help us?" she asks after a few moments of silence.

"Because it was the right thing to do?" Rarity answers.

"In the boutique, I saw a dress. A dress that had my grandfather's name in it along with the same runes I saw on the marker." Vulsegardt says as she slightly raises her voice.

Before she could say anything else, Rarity puts her hoof on Vulsegardt's mouth, stopping her from going further. "Shh! They mustn't know." Rarity whispers.

"Know what?" Vulsegardt asks after she moves away from Rarity's hoof.

"It's not safe to tell these things at this time, especially now when they're going to torture you for information," Rarity explains in a hurry.

"What is she talking about Rarity?" Sweetie Belle asks with confusion. "Is it about the human who was wearing purple?" she guesses.

"Shush Sweetie! We mustn't speak of these things right now," Rarity says and silences her sister.

"At least tell me on which side you are in all of this," Vulsegardt asks with concern.

"On yours," Rarity replies with confidence, "We vowed to protect you."

"We?" Vulsegardt asks as she looks at Rarity with a mix of confusion and hope.

The truck stops. Shortly after the back door of the truck opens and behind it, several EarthGov soldiers were standing all aiming rifles on the group of three.

Lilith steps out of the crowd. "Ladies, welcome to The Crystal Empire," she says as she steps in the truck. "Graciously borrowed by Princess Cadence and Prince Armour," she continues with a short chuckle.

"Where are they? Princess Cadence and Prince Armour would never stand for this!" Rarity shouts.

"Heh," Lilith laughs, "Prince Armour went missing, leaving his poor pregnant wife here all alone. Lets just say that Atlax convinced Cadence into agreeing with his demands of borrowing the Crystal Empire for a little while," Lilith explains with a malicious grin on her face.

"Princess Cadence is pregnant?" Vulsegardt asks.

Lilith smirks but doesn't answer.

"What do you want with us?" Rarity asks with a raised voice.

Lilith turns to Rarity and smiles ,"I'm glad you asked marshmallow, Vulsie here is going up to the big man and you two are going to become part of our little crystal empire family!"

Rarity gasps, "You must have some kind of dysfunctional nerve, why would I ever work for somepony like you?"

"Because..." Lilith says and quickly teleports behind Rarity and Sweetie Belle, "The dead outside the walls aren't as nice as I am, so you have a choice. You can stay here and help us defend the empire," she stops speaking for a moment to grab Sweetie Belle by her mane, to which Sweetie whimpers in pain.

"No! Let her go right this instant, she did nothing wrong!" Rarity pleads.

"Or I roast your little sister on a campfire," Lilith continues speaking.

Rarity silently stares at Lilith with an obvious amount of fear in her eyes.

"Leave them alone Lilith, it's me you want, not them!" Vulsegardt intervenes.

Lilith smirks, "That may be true, but your friend here broke the law and now she has to do work for the community," she sarcastically explains and releases Sweetie from her grip. "But before

that, she needs to see the Judge and of course so do you," Lilith says as she turns to Vulsegardt.

Sweetie Belle instantly jumps back to Rarity and sobs as she hugs her.

"The alicorn council won't stand for this, you better stop before things become difficult for you Lilith," Vulsegardt threatens.

"The alicorn council won't stand for this," Lilith imitates Vulsegardt and let's out a small burst of laughter. "Don't rely on your little gang of Princesses Vulsie, word on the street is that you helped one kill another and the third was forced to surrender. And little Twilight is in for a fight that is over her little purple head," Lilith replies with confidence.

"Those are lies! It was Ryan Atlax who killed Celestia not Luna!" Vulsegardt shouts.

"I don't believe you," Lilith childishly taunts Vulsegardt. "I'm getting bored now, how about you three move before my friends here lend you a hand?" she says as she points to the soldiers waiting outside the van.

Rarity gets up and pulls her sister up with her, "Come Sweetie, let's go," she says with defeat and the two begin to move out.

"This means you too Vulsie," Lilith says with a smirk.

"Buck you," Vulsegardt replies stubbornly and holds her ground.

Lilith sighs. She slowly approaches Vulsegardt and looks her in the eyes.

Both Vulsegardt and Lilith stare at each other for several seconds, Vulsegardt with hate and Lilith with a neutral face. Lilith then quickly pulls out her revolver and hits Vulsegardt, instantly giving her a black eye. She grunts as she falls down, putting her hoof on her face.

"She needs a hand boys," Lilith says with a raised voice, and soldiers enter the van, grabbing Vulsegardt and dragging her out.

Vulsegardt did not move. She stayed still on purpose, giving them unnecessary trouble.

Rarity walking alongside the soldiers looks around the place they were in. Although it really was the Crystal Empire it seemed different. Streets were full of soldiers and recruited civilians walking around with worried expression on their faces, like they are too afraid to even look at each other.

The group stops as they reach the Crystal Tower entrance. Lilith opens the door and the group enters.

Unlike the outside, the tower had strictly only EarthGov soldiers in it.

"Drop her," Lilith says after a few minutes of walking. And so they did, the soldiers drop Vulsegardt and quickly after one of the soldiers attaches a small machine on Vulsegardt's and Rarity's horn. It was a familiar device to Vulsegardt, as she wore the same device in Canterlot that blocked her ability to use magic.

Lilith pulls Vulsegardt up and opens a large wooden door that was in front of them. "Get in," she orders and after a few seconds of silence the group enters.

It seemed like a large office with a wooden desk on the middle. As they approach, Vulsegardt notices someone familiar standing besides the large office chair behind the desk. It was Xuri, the zebra who followed her and Fedor across the country. As they stepped closer, Xuri stared at them with wide eyes.

"Mission success sir, we got the unicorn," Lilith says with pride.

A human, sitting in the large chair behind the desk lifts his head and looks at Lilith and Vulsegardt.

"Ryan Atlax," Vulsegardt says with disgust.

"Ah, Miss Vulsegardt, finally we meet again," Atlax replies.

Vulsegardt did not reply. She kept staring at him with hatred and anger.

"Tell me," Atlax begins to speak as he looks around, "Where is Fedor Conhanger?"

"Why are you doing this?" Vulsegardt asks.

Atlax sighs. He looks as Lilith and nods, then Lilith kicks Vulsegardt by her torso and Vulsegardt falls down in pain.

"Vulsegardt!" Rarity shouts and tries to help Vulsegardt, but is quickly slapped by Lilith and stands down.

"I am the one who asks the questions miss Vulsegardt," Atlax says. "Now, where is Fedor Conhanger?" he asks again.

After a groan Vulsegardt answers, "Why don't you ask your psychopath here, she was the one who killed him."

"Is that so?" Atlax asks and rolls his eyes to Lilith.

"Yes, he died shortly after leaving Canterlot," Vulsegardt replies.

Atlax smirks, "That's very interesting, especially since my reports say that he was seen in Ponyville after your little visit to Princess Cadence here. I assume someone had to use Conhanger's gear to teleport, or am I wrong?" he asks with a small smile on his face.

Vulsegardt doesn't answer. She was thinking as fast as she could but Atlax could see it in her eyes that she was lying.

"What's the matter miss Vulsegardt? Tounge faster than your mind?" Atlax taunts.

Vulsegardt only glares back.

"Where is he?" Atlax shouts.

"Out of your reach," Vulsegardt smugly answers.

"Lilith, escort our guest here to where she will be staying. And make sure she gets the proper treatment," Atlax orders with an upset voice.

"With pleasure," Lilith says with a smile and grabs Vulsegardt by her neck.

"What do you want from us?" Vulsegardt shouts as she begins to resist Lilith's grasp.

"What I want is to know where Fedor Conhanger is," Atlax repeats himself.

"But why?!" Vulsegardt screams with anger.

While the conflict is taking place a human soldier runs into the office and whispers something in Xuri's ear. The soldier seemed to be high of rank, his armour was a different colour from the usual soldiers Vulsegardt had seen.

"Alright, inform the troops and transport," Xuri orders the soldier.

"Sir!" The soldier says and leaves.

"What is it Xuri?" Atlax asks with a less upset voice.

Xuri looks at Rarity and thinks for a moment. "Sir, Princess Twilight Sparkle was confirmed to be at Rainbow Falls."

"We already knew that Xuri," Atlax replies with an aggravated voice.

"Yes but, our scouts say she has teamed up with Princess Luna and Celestia's right hoof Bright Judgement, along with some UNEE EarthGov representatives..." Xuri pauses.

"Should have known some traitors would get through. What else?" Atlax raises his voice.

"Thats not all sir," Xuri pauses for a moment, "The demigod Discord is also confirmed to be there. The Royal force is backing them up, said to be under control of Prince Shining Armour. Rainbow falls practically belongs to them now," Xuri says and takes a breath.

Atlax sighs and begins to think.

"Sir?" Lilith calls, still standing in the room holding Vulsegardt.

"Now we know where Shining has ran off. We can kill them all off now," Atlax says with a cold voice.

"Sir?" Xuri says with a worrying voice.

"You could barely take one Alicorn down, how do you expect to be able to take two down along with an army and a Discord?" Vulsegardt asks with confidence.

Atlax smirks and gets up. From the table he takes a stone and it begins to faintly glow. "You have no idea what I'm capable of Miss Vulsegardt. This stone has properties far beyond your comprehension. Celestia is dead, but her strength is mine. And I will use it to kill the other Alicorns and gain their power," he says with a passive aggressive voice.

The three captives look at their captor with fear. They weren't sure if he was bluffing, but the dead serious look on his face made them think twice.

Rarity was looking directly into the stone. She opened her mouth to say something, but changes her mind the last second, letting out a sigh.

"Take Miss Vulsegardt away Lilith," Atlax says and turns to Xuri, "Inform Rafael that I will be making an appearance, we must kill this rebellion before it spreads," he orders and Xuri nods as he begins to walk out of the room.

Vulsegardt could feel that she is being pulled again as Lilith begins to drag her, after a few seconds she stopped resisting and begins to walk by Lilith's side. She and Lilith leave as Rarity and Sweetie Belle stay in the office.

"Don't worry Vulsie, Ryan won't kill you. Well, at least not yet," Lilith says with a taunting voice.

But Vulsegardt ignored her. She was struck with fear because it all made sense now. Atlax poisoned Celestia, took her power and he he'll use it to kill the others while the people think Luna and everyone on her side is to blame. "But wait," she thought to herself, "If he had the stone all along, why bother sending me to Ares?" she thinks for a few seconds. "Fedor," she assumes.

"Hey Lilith," Vulsegardt begins to speak, "Why do you want me and Fedor? With everything we went through, you could tell me," she asks.

Lilith smiles. "Smart. But not smart enough," she replies. "You'll know soon enough," she says.

From there on there was a silent five minute walk. They left the tower, passing the city. It was mostly empty, only soldiers and recruited civilians were seen here or there.

"Where is everypony?" Vulsegardt asks.

"Where your friend marshmallow is going, the wall. Ryan wants able bodies to defend the Crystal empire," Lilith replies. "They have a choice. Stay and defend or die."

Vulsegardt sighs. "At least I won't be worrying about the dead for a little while," she thinks to herself. "I hope Fedor it alright," she begins to worry, "What if Applejack and Big Mac didn't make it back to the farm? So many things could have gone wrong," she keeps thinking.

"Alright," Lilith says and breaks Vulsegardt's focus. "Your home until further notice," she points to what seemed like a medical facility.

They enter and Lilith leads Vulsegardt down into the basement levels of the building. "Since you've been such a good girl coming with me here I think you deserve a reward," she says and opens what seemed to be a small observation room.

Vulsegardt looks at Lilith with confusion as she is pushed inside and the door is closed and locked behind her. She turns around to observe the room, noticing that there was someone else inside. She looks with shock as she says, "Grandpa?"

Chapter 15 - The Needle