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// Log 31- You have an Army? We have Amy 
// Story: Of Magic and Machines 
// by FrostTheWolf 
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Of Magic and Machines- You have an army? We have Amy




Edge of the Everfree

Shortly after returning from the realm of Mira and Cassie, Nicko immediately pushed himself forward to get through the Everfree Forest. He did not know how much time he had been gone for since being summoned, but now the sun was beginning to rise in the distance and he remembered leaving shortly before sundown just yesterday. It meant that several hours had passed… and that was time he could’ve used. However, nonetheless, he was making progress. It was expected for him to take about a day to reach the other side of the Everfree Forest, yet he was getting closer to the end of the woods… in half that time.

By the time he had reached the outside edge, where the forest bordered the rest of the land below, he heard a loud blast go off in the distance to see a huge beam of energy in the distance close to the mountain range where Canterlot would reside. He had felt that kind of energy and power before… and that was from Faith. If she was there, then he hoped that she was okay and not hurt. The Rune Slayer knew that his daughter was in the Crystal Empire, yet he did not know if she was still there now or what was the current state of the Empire. Still, he needed to press on… Not just for his sake, but for the sake of those he called his friends and his family.

At one point, he stopped running. Only to look out in the distance to see something flicker for a small bit as he used some chaos magic to conjure a pair of binoculars. Adjusting them in his hands, he happened to see a whole battalion of demons that wore black armor with some dark sapphire tints in their armor, eyes and horns. Whatever they were doing out there was something that could possibly be a concern for Nicko since they could be heading in the same direction he was going. And if things kept going like this, they were bound to run into each other.

The Rune Slayer needed to think through how he should approach the current situation. There were a couple of scouts, two berserkers and also one that particular demon that looked to be in charge of the small group of five. Still, charging in recklessly would be suicide and would more likely get himself killed if he wasn’t careful. So instead, he needed to be able to find a way to approach this from a tactical perspective. Of course, with the Chaos magic that Eris gave him, he could easily just whip out a rocket launcher and blow everything to smithereens… though, where is the fun in that?

When it always came to combat, Nicko preferred to not always resort to the quickest way of eliminating every one of his opponents in one shot. In fact, he found it fun in order to engage in opponents that could fight back. But for a big group such as this one, it would be the more reasonable choice to split the massive force into two smaller groups in order to take care of them one at a time rather than all at once. Finding a stone by his feet, the spellsword used some of his magic to place a rune on the stone before having it thrown several feet away.

As it landed, the demon that looked to be in charge of the small group heard the stone land somewhere nearby before turning to some of his comrades. “You two, check where that sound came from. If we’re lucky and find that chaser, the twins will reward us.” When the Rune Slayer heard that, two things went through his head. The first thing was if they were talking about Arma, the Deadly Chaser that he and Faith had encountered before. The second was the mentioning of these… twins. Were they some high ranking demon? A pair of commanders possibly?

That was something he needed to ask. Fortunately, luck was on his side as the two scouts that were inspecting the stone he threw called over the two berserkers to come have a look at it and see if they could make any sense of it. Leaving the leader of the small party all by himself. Quietly, he had himself approach the lone demon and once he was close enough, snapped his finger as the stone he threw exploded, taking out the other demons as he forced the leader of the small party onto his knees.

“What the-?!” The demon snapped, shortly before being restrained by the Rune Slayer’s magic as Nicko summoned one of his blades and pointed the tip of the weapon at the lone hellion’s chin.

“I’m sorry for the rather… rude interruption, but I believe you happen to have a few answers to some questions I might have,” The Rune Slayer replied with a cocky grin as he looked back at the angry hellspawn. “I don’t have all day… so either tell me and I can make your end quick, or I can make things a little more… painful.” At the end of his sentence, the restraints around the demon began to burn into the monster’s dark skin as it grit his teeth and growled a little in response.

“Grr… You little rat! When I get my hands on you, I’ll-!” That comment from the captive made Nicko’s blood boil, swinging his blade only once as it cleanly cut off the demon’s right hand as it dropped to the ground. “ARGH! Why you-!?”

“Let me give you a piece of advice…” When the demon looked back at the Rune Slayer, it saw pure anger in his eyes as his magic began to form all around him. “If you want the pain to stop, I would recommend choosing your next words carefully.” Seeing the magic around him caused the fiend to change it’s tone as it begrudgingly looked back at the spellsword and grit his teeth in disgust.

“What… do you want?” He grumbled in disgust as Nicko calmed down just a little, looking back at his captive with a small grin on his face as he placed his sword on his shoulders.

“Listening now, are we?” Nicko asked as he took in a deep breath. “Alright… First order of business… you mention to your colleagues something about a chaser. Why are you so desperate on finding whoever this person is?”

“Why are you so eager to find a damned traitor-?” The hellspawn growled at him, before cringing a little more due to the pain he felt all around him. “Gah! Alright, fine! That human with the hood who was suppose to be helping us betrayed Lord Scar the moment he found out that he was using him as a pawn.”

“Now hold on a second,” The Rune Slayer interjected. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t your leader known as Lord Ran? I don’t remember there being a Lord Scar last time I heard about the demons.” All the demon did was laugh a little as he looked back at him.

“Hah… He doesn’t go by that old title anymore. When being freed from Tartarus, he was rather… impatient and decided to take matters into his own hands. In doing so, the magic that was keeping him there burned his skin and deformed his body. He would never be able to recover from them-.”

“I just asked for an answer, not a complex origin story,” The Rune Slayer deadpanned. “Keep it simple. I still have other questions to ask.” The hellspawn growled in response before looking back at Nicko in disgust.

“He’s no longer Ran… yet someone more powerful after breaking himself free. Someone you can’t take on alone.” He simplified things for the Rune Slayer, looking back at him as he continued to speak. “The Chaser tried and now is mortally wounded. He won’t last long at this rate. Probably die within the next few hours.” This was definitely important. If Nicko could find whoever it was, he can find a way to help them before they bleed to death. Yet… he still had more questions to ask.

“Next question… Who are the Twins?” His second question had the demon raise an eyebrow, but also caused his eyes to widen.

“What are you, stupid-!?” The response to that was a punch in the face that almost broke the hellion’s jaw as he shook his head and grumbled a little to himself. “Okay, fine… The Twins are the two highest ranking demons in our entire army. They take orders directly from Lord Scar himself and also serve as his commanders to the rest of the lower ranking demons like me. They were the ones who also had tricked the Chaser into fighting for our cause before he learned that we were deceiving him.”

“So there his right hand man?”

“What?”

“Human phrase,” Nicko stated briefly, explaining a bit to him in the process. “It’s a way to say that someone trusts them the most.”

“Pfft, more or less,” He growled. “Those two had planned his return since that Diabolic Esper was destroyed seven years ago. They saw the skill and power bestowed upon humans like you when they end up here and needed to convince one of them to do their bidding in order to release their Lord from his prison since it was too much of a risk for them to do themselves. They had strength, but anytime they used it, it would draw attention to themselves.” Now that made a lot of sense. By using and manipulating the Chaser to do what they wanted, these twins would not draw attention to themselves. Meaning they could have him get all that they needed, including information on them, without having to get their hands dirty.

Now that only left one last thing. “Okay, final question-.”

“Someone fat get in my way!” The voice was one that Nicko was all too familiar with… and it belonged to someone that just happen to land on the same demon that he was trying to interrogate. Which, upon landing, caused a cloud of dust to drift up along with killing the hellspawn he was trying to interrogate.

“Well… nice of you to drop in… but did you have to do it on the demon I was interrogating?” He asked honestly, looking back at the Crimson Avenger with a deadpan expression.

“Um…..whoops? My bad.” Amy said as she pulled herself off of the demon. “Sorry buddy.” Nicko sighed a little as he looked back at his friend. He did expect for her to come by after having that talk with Selena.

“It’s alright… I was able to find out some things. Though, I wasn’t able to find out where these guys set up their base of operations.” He sighed a little, looking back at the broken body of the demon he was interrogating as it turned into a cloud of black dust. Then, he remembered something important that he did say before Amy’s… dynamic entry. “There may be someone who does know though… but from what our… ‘informant’ told me before being blown up into pieces, the person we're looking for is mortally wounded and may bleed to death if we don’t reach them in time.”

“I can track him down if you want me to?”

That thought alone… caught Nicko off guard. Big time. “Wait… you can do that?” He asked Amy, still a little shocked at what she just said and also trying to wrap his head around it.

“Well yeah. I mean I can control blood magic remember? So it would be obvious enough that I can track someone down via blood.” She replied, conjuring some of the magic she was talking about in an outstretched hand. It did make sense… and it was also quite a relief given the circumstances.

“Wow… I honestly had no idea you were able to do that.” He admitted, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Well maybe next time you should ask me about what I can do.”

“I would’ve, but I didn’t want to assume.” The Rune Slayer sighed as he let the Crimson Avenger’s magic begin to work. Letting her focus so she could find out who or where this person would be… and hopefully find them fast.

“......Okay, I got the location of where he is.” She said after a short while before walking in the same direction, with Nicko following her shortly afterwards. The spellsword allowed her to guide the two of them over there since she had the tracker on the one the demons were chasing. Yet, as they got closer, both of them were soon equally surprised by who the demons were hunting after. “Oh you gotta be f*cking kidding me!?”

It was Arma. Also known as the Deadly Chaser that not only had fought against Nicko’s niece, Faith, but also the same jackass that took away Amy’s father before anyone had the chance of resealing him away again. Yet this time, he was in very bad shape. Deep stab wounds that had gone through two vital spots and he seemed to have been bleeding non-stop over a long period of time. “Y-you two?” He coughed, originally wanting to pull out his weapons, but didn’t have the strength to do so. “W-what do you w-want…? C-can’t you see that I-i’m… well… dying?”

“That was kind of obvious. If your wounds didn’t show it, then the amount of blood you lost did.” The Spellsword grimaced, not expecting to see Arma’s face again. “The hell messed you up so bad?”

“That d-demon b-bastard that tricked m-me,” Arma groaned in pain. “I w-was a fool to think that I-i could kill him… E-especially in the s-state he’s in…” The Deadly Chaser definitely looked like a real mess from what he was trying to say. “H-he lied to m-me that if I-i did what he  w-wanted, I c-could k-know what happened to m-my sister… W-whole damn t-thing was a lie from the s-start.”

“To be honest, I’m not surprise that he would do something like this. Happen to me once when I was a kid when I wanted to go to public school.” Nicko for a moment, raised an eyebrow in confusion. How was what Amy was saying suppose to relate to this right now? “Oh and if you’re wonder how this relates, he whipped my ass with a belt for 24 hours when he said he’d do this, but didn’t let me go to public school to meet new friends.”

Sighing a little, The Rune Slayer then turned back to the chaser, trying to get the subject back on track. “Okay… Arma, can you tell me where the demons have their base of operations set up? We’re planning on making sure that demonic jackass gets what he deserves.” For a moment, it looked like the chaser was smiling a bit. He was unsure if the smile was a hint for some sort of trap, but… that was not the case.

“B-badlands… had their fortress be e-encased in the side of where a volcano is. Smoke from the v-volcano hides it out of sight, making it h-hard for anyone by air or ground to f-find it.” They both soon noticed him slide something out to them as it tapped against the side of their feet. To their surprise, it was the Chaser’s dual pistols. “T-take it… Y-you may f-find a b-better purpose for them.” On one hand, Nicko was grateful for him helping them… on the other hand, he was wondering if it was actually a good idea to let Amy use a handgun. Especially with the amount of collateral damage that she was capable of causing.

“Huh, been a while since I used a handgun.” That immediately had Nicko think of a new question inside his head. That being when exactly was the last time she used one… and if her using one now would be any different than before. Picking it up off of the ground, Nicko holstered it in his coat pocket before looking back at Arma to thank him for all his help.

“Thank you… we very much appreciate what you’ve done to help us out,” Nicko replied to him. “We’ll make sure those bastards pay. For everyone they have hurt… and everything they’ve done.”

“If it’s any consolation, I’m sorry for what my asshole of a father did to you.” The Crimson Avenger told him, making Nicko a little bit surprised by that. He honestly thought that she wouldn’t forgive anyone that had either help or assisted her father. But this… was surprising to him.

“T-thank you…” Arma replied, noticing a small light around him as he began to fade away. “J-just… wake me up w-when I’m not in E-equus anymore…” With that, he soon disappeared in a massive flash of light, leaving only Amy and Nicko by themselves.

“So… ready to knock off some demon heads?” Nicko asked her as he turned to face the Crimson Avenger next to her. Making sure his weapon was sharp and ready for the demon slaying that both of them were going to embark on.

“You know I’m always ready to do stuff like this.” She said with a evil grin on her face. Which, strangely enough, was the kind of look he wanted to see from Amy right around now. They now knew where the demons were and were now outfitted with more tools of the trade for demon killing.

“Alright… Let’s get going… Time for the fun to begin,” He smirked, looking back at her before beginning to walk away. Until he stopped, let Amy catch up and added something to what he said. “The bloody fun, of course.”

“Oh I’m going to enjoy this~.” Amy smirked maliciously. That was something that they both would definitely agree on. There was only one question though that remained inside Nicko’s head as he looked back at his ally and friend.

And that question… was how exactly were they suppose to get there in the first place?




Few hours later

After originally setting off, both the Rune Slayer and the Crimson Avenger were now on a ledge overlooking the exact volcano in the badlands that was the stronghold of the demons and the center of their operations. However, despite Amy frequently insisting that they should just storm through the gates, Nicko saw a couple of problems with that strategy. First, the smoke from the volcano would make it impossible to see the closer you are to where the entrance would be. In addition, there was also the possibility that they might’ve hidden a lot of defenses in the smoke. Something he thought of when he watched a bird fly by… only to get shot by a cannonball.

It didn’t help any that Amy had decided to name the bird Mr. Tweetums.

At one particular point though, Nicko found something that not only seemed to be… useful, but also brought back a bit of flashbacks to when he first met Amy a long time ago. A set of train tracks that lead into the side of the mountain. Something that was definitely useful and meant that they did not have to go through the smoke and ash that was as thick as fog. “Hey Amy… I think I found our way inside.”

“Really? Because so far I can’t seem to find one myself.” She said, just as Nicko handed to her a set of binoculars he had conjured earlier and pointed down below towards the set of tracks that was on the ground.

“Down there are train tracks. They’re probably using this to carry resources and such for everything they have here.” The Rune Slayer pointed out to her. “If we can find ourselves a train to sneak onboard, we can find our way inside… and once inside, you’re free to raise as much hell as you want.”

“Oh this is going to be a perfect day for me to unleash hell.”

“Eris recommended for me to try and make it up to you since she told me that you felt ripped off after not being able to kill Eric yourself,” The spellsword sighed as he stretched out his shoulders. “This time though, when we find this guy… you’re free to cut off his head.”

“… Oh, this is going to be one hell of a showdown.” The Crimson Avenger smiled, eager for the carnage that was about to begin soon. Shortly after saying that though, both of them heard the sound of an oncoming train that was moving along the tracks. Which in turn gave them the opportunity to hop on without drawing any attention. That and also making sure to eliminate any demon onboard that could raise any sort of alarm and tip off the rest of the army of their presence.

Shortly though, the train made it’s way inside the volcano. Which was odd because from what Arma told them, the demons had established their base of operations alongside the volcano. But what they found inside was rather… surprising. The inside of the volcano was hollowed out to the point that the enemy was actually able to set up a town inside where Scar’s soldiers can take up residence until they were needed. Now though, as the train was coming to a halt, one of the two demons that was standing guard turned to their partner shortly afterwards and asked them a question.

“Hey… Isn’t there usually a conductor that says something right now or-?” That was the perfect opportunity to start some mayhem. Especially with Amy being quite eager to knock some heads… and have all hell break loose the moment she barreled forth from the game.

“Knock KNOCK, BITCHES!!! OPEN UP!!”





End Log 31