Cookies and a Devil - the full story

After a few hours of patrolling the rooms and what not, Artyom felt a kind of unease

Lucy used an old trick she had learned. She ate a cookie in each corner of the area they had to watch. With doing that she placed a magical alarm. There was nothing going through here that doesn't belong here without her noticing.
Suddenly a door creaked open! With creepy sound
Lucy just patroled like she did the whole time. Her alarm did not go off so the pony using the door must have the right to be here.
"Damn the door is stuck..." said a Mare on the other side. Then the door was blasted to the opposite wall. Thankfully missing Artyom and lucy. Then a mare stepped out. She had an average pony size. Her coat was whiter than that of an angel and her cutie mark a red rabbid emblem. Her mane was white except a frizzled red part that run over her eye somewhat but not enough to conceal it. She seemed to have two tails with a red ball inbetween. A big pony head sized ball of red magic to be exact and her to horns were interwinded like a sort of helix with qnother red ball at the tip. She stepped out and artxom stepped back, bowing to the queen of tartarus, Razlad c. Rabbid
Lucy acted on reflex and broke a cookie the runes catched the door and made it stop midair. Then it went around Razlad and fixed itself. She bowed down as well. Artyom did it so it couldn't be wrong to do that.
Razlad looked at the door and then at the two security ponies. It took a bit of time but then she recognized, "...Lucy moon?"
"Yes, I'm honored you know my name", she said. Because she was used to dominant and strong presences she was completely relaxed and calm.
"Ah yes. Thank you... you can stand up as well" razlad said looking at Artyom. Artyom stood upright and ready to fullfill orders. Razlad looked at the door for a while and then said, "Do the two of you know how to play mariokart?"
Artyom nodded. He had the game himself

Lucy was a bit surprised, but she remembered all the stuff Nevio already did with ponys. So it wasn't that surprising anymore after she thought about it. "I ... never played it, but I'm a quick learner", she said with a smile.
Then razlad grinned with a happy wide sharp teeth smile and turned to her door, "Four players! Follow me"
It was a welcome opportunity for Lucy to see who is the pony that wanted to make copies of a dark child's connection to the Darklands, so she followed.

The room was smaller than expected. There was a long ass table at one wall of course with some plans and documents on it. The other side had a couch and a wadrobe. The floor was carpeted with a blue color. And finally on the opposite wall was a paused menu on a big tv screen and 4 wii controllers. A paused mariokart of course. "I had to play with myself cuz i am alone at the moment here. So i am glad i found some ponies around. 4 controllers. Three ponies in the room. Lucy would want to ask

"Where did the other two go?", Lucy asked.

Razlad stopped and took an energy drink from the fridge, she looked at the two and asked, "want one? And there is one pony missing by the way."

"No thank you I got my cookies if I need a energy boost", Lucy smiled.

After razlad consumed her drink, the ball in her tail began to glow and suddenly the two tails split at the base and with a little flash there were suddenly two Razlads. One male and one female with one tail. The female had normal pony eyes while the male ones were dull with a small pupil and pink iris. But so far obly their genders were different.
Artyom took an emergy drink and silently stared at king razlad. A pony with the physique of sombra.
"I am the fourth pone," he said and took an energy drink

Lucy looked at the just appeared pony, but it wasn't a very big surprise for her. She was used to all different sorts of magic.
The king took a seat cushion in front of the tv and waited for the others. Queen and Artyom soon followed
Lucy would not want to let them wait, so she took a seat in front of the TV, too.

She was given a controller prety quick. it looked like a remote with a few buttons and had to be held sideways.
"I actually never played something like it. This is almost as new to me as that weird ring we found", she said with a little confused expression.
Queen was about to unpause the thing, then she whipped her head with a sickening crunch to Lucy, "Ring??"
Lucy crinched at the sound her neck made, but nodded. "Yes, we found an odd looking ring as we killed the evil being that somehow was able to undergo security measures of your magic", she replied.
Razlad was silent for a while and then pounced Artyom sniffing his coat like an exciting dog. Artyom was too shocked to move
Then queen asked, "where"
Lucy didn't know what to make of this. She held back for the moment. It didn't seem like she meant any harm to Artyom.
Then the queen seemed to locate where the ring was actually and her hoof dissapeared inside Artyoms foreleg
Lucy was munching on a cookie while she watched the whole thing.
Then she pulled out the same red ring, "mine~~~"

"My treasure~~" then king razlad tackeld his female side, taking the ring for himself
And then they brawled for a few minutes with chairs being thrown and stuff destroyed until female razlad crashed into him and they became one again
"I am retarded sometimes"
Then she noticed the two staring and blushed hard.

"Okay, I know you're a god and all and I should be respectful and not question any of this, but what actually just happened?", Lucy asked.

Razlad straighten out her stuff and trotted closer to lucy, not wanting to answer the question, she instead sat down and said, "the real question is.. why are you so cute?"

Lucy got big eyes from that and blushed a bit. With those big eyes she said, "Because you don't want to answer my question." Somehow Razlad reminded her of Nevio at this moment. It doesn't happen very often that she would catch that dragon out on something. But when she does he acts a little bit like that.
"Yep and as long as i don't answer you may stay cute, you mortal," she said and lightly booped lucys nose. Artyom could only stare.
"I don't want you to tell me how or why this ring affects you. The thing I'm interested in is, how and why did this ring get into, and I literally mean into, that shadow?"

"Oh the ring. Of course... of course Artyom doesnt know anything about it. He wasnt here. The ring is... like the synthetic spine we had put into our missionaries. We got some beef with the angels, them thinking it was too brutal to rip out a spine and replacing it with a mind controlling one, therefore we made this ring for atleast to those that have fingers. That was a compromise that held so far. Then someone sabotaged the software and the magic inside of it and suddenly it was gone. Having an excuse we continued to use the synth spine to replicate red magic . We of course searched for it but it was lost. And i don't know what you mean with 'shadow'"

"The enemy we faced was an old child of Darkness, almost as old as Nevio maybe even older, " she explained. "So what you're saying is that this ring is just a replacement for the syntetic spine?"
She didn't want to ask about the mind controlling features of that spine. >Would that mean Artyom could be brought to attack me, because they can control him?< she thought.
As if hearing her thougts, Artyom said, "i don't have a synthetic spine. Only the non devils have. And don't worry nobody controls my mind with my spine" razlad smirked and jockingly said, her hips moving side to side, "yep we only control with body language". Artyom snorted a laugh and looked at the two, noting how cute a kiss would be. Razlad to lucy, "child of darkness. Hmm, yeah. That Nevio dude requested some visits about that topic. My little devils are already in the darklands preparing a base... is that enemy dead dead ?"
"We hope so. About that ... " Lucy said. "I guess you know about the horror those devils will be facing if you implant a connection between them and the Darklands? You must've talked to Nevio about this right?"

"I did not talk to Nevio that much, no. And thats why the devils are there, to face the horrors and so on. But i am positive that they will dominate the situation"

"I hope they are ready, " Lucy said with a distant look. "Artyom and I were only two new entities. How many devils are there?"

Meanwhile in the Darklands the devils had awoken the attention of someone. The pony felt the disturbance and the anger of the land about so many new energy being brought into the Darklands. "What is happening?" he asked making his way to the new source of energy he just felt.

"Again. I am positive that they will atleast survive a month. The... 12 devils plus a few warrior guys."

It's not good if there is a large number of them. You have a higher chance of survival if you're alone there." She chewed on another cookie. "That ring, ... " she changed the subject, "did someone steal it and why was it able to undergo Artyoms magic?
"Undergo...? " she looked at the ring and started to analyze it, "apperantly somebody replaced the original magic with one of a more higher ranking devil... but how is that possible..." she looked at Artyom, "before you ask the rest of my err friends are in the zoo or dead or something. " she looked back at the ring and thought about the implications, could it be that someone in her midst was a traitor ?

Lucy chewed on another cookie this one was black. "I'm not in the position to tell you anything, but you should really talk to Nevio about that base. It seems like something the Darklands wouldn't want to be there. And trust me, your darkest and deepest places here are a paradise compared to the gore and horror of the Darklands. Artyom and I were trainees down in those lands. We both know how horrible that place can be with ponys it just wants to test. I wouldn't want to think about how we would've been treated as what the land sees as intruders."
"Lets call Nevio then. You can continue patrolling or something" she went to thr next room to call Nevio with a crystal.

"Nevio... Nevio..."

Then he was right in the middle of these weird looking ponys. He looked for what looked like the leader and then went straight for him. "Hey you, who's in charge here?" he said without a hint of emotion on his face. His fur was grey almost looking like metal. This land was like a second home to him. Because from here he could reach each point in Equestria in a matter of a fraction of a second. Now as he was closer Bahlok remembered. He had seen somepony which looked like that before. What were those devils up to?

Nevio was sitting in his office at the moment. Not really doing much. After Dukaan was slain things went back to as normal as they were before. Suddenly something caught his attention. "Razlad?", he said looking at the crystal on his desk. She could only see a dark room and two red eyes in hers.
"The colored devil there" said the random devil and was off.
Razlad looked into the eyes, "you wanted to talk to me about the darklands and my plans with it, right ?"
"Your plans? You know this is the first time I hear about any plans with the darklands." Nevio said his eyes iluminating up a bit more lighting up his nuzzle showing the contures of his face.

Bahlok looked for the colored devil and went to question him. "Hello, ... " he said standing right in front of the devil, " ... what are you doing here?" he just asked.
"Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, i thought maybe to, you know, take over darklands " squee. The colored said, "we just want to explore and learn more about this world. Are you local?"

Nevio showed a big grin. "Interesting, why?"

Bahlok shook his head. "I wasn't born here, but this is my second home."
"Just for science"
Bahlok looked around. They really had a lot of science stuff with them. "So you're telling me that after Artyom was here and got blessed with the magic of these lands you're just here to collect some information?"
"Artyom is not involved in this but to put it bluntly, yes. "

"Why didn't you ask me about this? I could have given you a few of my warriors Razi", he playfully teased her. He was in a good mood.
She smirked playfully back. She was a sucker for bad boys as well and answered, "oh you know... i thought you would disagree so i did not ask at all"
Her
"Well I don't, your stallions are nearly dead though. I'll send in some of my best Hunters that will oversee the whole thing and help your devils to stay alive. If it's not too late already. We wouldn't want them to be crushed, their souls devoured by the shadows. Also would you be a good little girl and make some time for a dinner for two tonight? I would like to hear more about these plans if yours." He licked his lips.
"Mm dinner? Sounds like a plan. When and where ?"
"Tonight, I'll take you to the crystal empire. I have a house there where we won't be disturbed."
"I see... then i'll meet you there ?"
"Oh and do you like potatoe salad ?"
"I do," he said. "So be ready for tonight," he said and closed the connection between the crystals.

Bahlok looked around again and sighed. "How many of your devils are real warriors or soldiers?"
"We have them for additional protection," said the colored devil and pointed to the giant moving pieces of armor

Razlad meanwhile giddily got on her bed and giggled like a filly
She was gonna meet an edgy person. Yay

"Well you're going to need them, " he said thinking about the relation between the soldiers and the scientists. "I ... " he started to say something, but couldn't finish the sentence as a big black shadow flew in their direction. It was a giant crow like creature. But it wasn't only one of them. Three of those giant beasts were headed straight for the camp.
Upon landing two of the three crows crushed at least half of the gear. Bahlok looked back at the crows not moving a muscle in his face. "Well I hope nobody was in there. Also hopefully your warriors are trained in the horrors of this land."

Nevio stood up and because he knew, that his Hunters would take a while to arrive he decided to pay the darklands a visit. Shadows were flowing out of his eyes and the corners of his mouth. Then his heart stopped beating and he died. His body melting into shadows.
It never gets old, " he said grinning. It always felt so refreshing to be reborn. "Now let's see how many of them are still alive.
Two died. Only. While the rabbit warriors were fending off the shadows with white burning evil blades.

Suddenly a black shadow appeared right next to Bahlok. "Help them."

In the next ten seconds three black crow like creatures died. One took a direct hit to its spine. Then Bahlok jumped to the next and stabbed his hoof through the eyes of the creature ripping its eye out and damaging the brain with another hit. The last one was about to hit two devils as Nevio teleported right in front of them and his Shadows made a big forcefield. "Bahlok!", he commanded and in just a split second Bahlok was right next to him transforming into a scythe. Nevios eyes glowed red as his magic grabbed the weapon and with a big grin her jumped to kill the other crow. It tried to hit him midair, but he just cut through the claw and opened its throat with the next strike.
Then everything went quiet. The bodys of the crows dissolved and Nevio and Bahlok returned to their normal forms again.

An awkward silence passed as the devils looked around their broken gear and the bipedal armored things rubbed their neck... "we would really need your help then, mister Nevio"
"We will, ... " while he said that five Hunters and two Huntresses appeared behind him, " ... make sure that you will continue on to research at your black hearts content." He came a bit closer to the devil in charge and said "who knows what you may discover here, am I right?"

With that he turned around and looked at the Hunters and Huntresses. "There will be a lot of attacks, you will be guarding the devils in teams of two." They didn't really look dangerous. Nevio had this fearsome, dangerous aura around him radiating his dominance and deadlyness, but those other ponys they just seemed like normal civilians. "Any questions?" he asked, but didn't wait for any questions and just vanished on the spot.
The colored devil looked at rhe newcomers and nodded. Then proceded to call for more aid from HQ...