Runes and Mercenaries

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.