Runes and Mercenaries

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.