Ashurr's assault was brutal and overwhelming; Butch barely held out against his barrage of smoke bombs that exploded with rocking force. Every time Butch would dodge or try to move, Ashurr would encircle him, surrounding him in a maelstrom of swirling ash. Butch's mechanical lungs and breathing apparatus inside his helmet luckily nullified the choking effect of the ash, and his visibility remained optimal thanks to the smoke-proof eyeholes on his helmet. However, that didn't reduce the impact of Ashurr's smoke torrents, and he quickly found himself pinned down and out of breathing room to analyze the situation. Butch knew where to hit Ashurr– at the air tank on his back. Granted, that proved to be a difficult task, as Ashurr's vapour body was very agile and manoeuvrable, and he was able to dodge quickly. Bullets were unable to harm the fleshy parts of his body, and they passed through him without any effort or effect. Not even a shot from his shotgun was able to hit the tank that hid within the clouds.

Butch's first instinct was to try and absorb the magical energies within the cloud around him, but his arcanium heart seemed to reject it, as if it were some kind of poison. He cringed as he felt a throbbing in his chest. "What the hell?"

"This isn't magic, Butch! It's alchemy gifted to me by Kaiser! You can't absorb or even resist against it!" Ashurr laughed maniacally within the storm of smoke and ash. "You'll have to try much harder if you want to beat me!"

Butch felt a blast of ash blow him back into a wall, pinning him down. He tried to resist, but the velocity of the wind was too great; so great in fact, that it almost pressed him into the concrete foundation of the inner walls. His armor may have been bulletproof and heatproof, but it wasn't immune to blunt force or wind. Grimacing as the wind howled, Butch grabbed an incendiary grenade off of his belt and tossed it forward. Though it didn't go far, the ensuing blast pushed back Ashurr far enough so Butch could loop around him. Butch strafed to the right, dodging blasts of smoke and ash that pummelled the ground around him, pounding hard into the ground with a deafening explosion. Eventually, a blast caught Butch in its range, sending him tumbling down. This gave Ashurr an opening.

Ashurr growled as he lashed out with whips of smoke that seemed to pass through the plating in his armor as they smashed into him. His reinforced, steel ribs absorbed most of the hit, but a small amount of force broke through his guard, and it briefly winded him as it slammed into his innards, causing massive trauma. He stopped and kneeled, coughing up a bit of his artificial blue blood within his mask; he wasn't willing to take it off and allow Ashurr another advantage. He stepped back and dodged another strike from Ashurr, and this time, he decided to bust out his secondary attacks. Butch's arcanium heart went into overdrive, and the magical energies stored in his heart began to exude from his body, forming around him like a blue flame.

"Alright, Aschetunn... I only use this mystic shit for dicks like you. Consider yourself special, asshole." Butch grunted as the energy around his body sunk into glass window covering his visible heart, gathering its power. A surging beam of raw magical energy then escaped the chest piece on his armor and barrelled towards Ashurr with blinding speed. "Eat this shit!"

"Please..." Ashurr scoffed as his body evaporated into a cloud of smoke; he then dodged the attack as if it were nothing. The blast his the other side of the arena, demolishing that area of the inner wall and killing a few members of the audience. "You're slow, Butch..."

"And you look like a prune, what else is new?" Butch laughed lightly at the scorched stallion's mangled face, which infuriated Ashurr.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you, Butch!" Ashurr cackled as he lunged at Butch, once again disintegrating into a grey haze as he advanced towards him. "Die!"

Ashurr lashed out at Butch with claws made of solidified ash and debris, slashing wildly at him like a rabid animal. Butch dodged the first strike, but he underestimated the speed of Ashurr; he may have been a few years older than him, but he was certainly no pushover. Ashurr sliced Butch across the chest, the reforming ash once again ignoring his armor. Butch clutched his chest as a he felt the gash beneath the metal armor, but he was unable to recover in time before Ashurr attacked him again. Butch was slashed across his arm, his leg, his shins, almost every part of his body but his face had become littered with gashes and scrapes beneath his external, metal shell.

"That armor is worthless, Butch! Worthless!" Ashurr grinned with his sinister, rotting maw of teeth. Ashurr then slashed at Butch's face, tearing off the smoke filter beneath his chin and allowing the polluted air to fill his lungs. "Suffocate!"

"Damn!" Butch coughed as he tore off his helmet, gasping for air. His eyes fluttered as he clutched his chest, the sentient ash trying to bore through his tough artificial lungs. "Sh- shit!"

"It must be nice to have artificial organs, huh Butch?" Ashurr smiled as he clapped his hands together in delight. "However, in this case, they may prove to be more of a burden than a blessing. It only takes seconds for me to eat away at a normal stallion's lungs. But for you... it'll take a few minutes, maybe five. The pain must be excruciating."

Butch wheezed as he clutched his throat in agony, trying to find a way out, to think. He grabbed his pistol and tried firing at Ashurr's tank, but it missed completely. Butch fired all of his shots in a panic at Ashurr; still, nothing. He tossed his last grenade at Ashurr, but the slimy weasel slithered around and contained it with a shield made of solid ash.

"It's pointless to struggle, Butch. I've won." Ashurr snickered above Butch as he placed his foot on the gasping stallion's chest, confident in his victory. "I'm glad I could finish this little feud of ours, that I could finally bring down the infamous Steel-Enforcer. It almost brings a tear to my eye that two stallions with nothing left to live for can finally hash it out after so long, finally bury the hatchet! How does it feel Butch? To gasp desperately for air, knowing this the last moment? How does it feel not having anyone? To die alone?"

"You're-... wrong..." Butch coughed as he winced in pain.

"Hmm?"

Butch grinned as he saw Evelyn's face; smiling, laughing when she was younger. His grin grew wider as he thought back to their picnic's in Chetbrovsky Park, their trips to go see the toy store or a movie together. Whenever he saw Evelyn, he saw his wife, the first mare in his life that mattered to him. He saw her magenta eyes, her brilliant smile. Butch loved everything about his daughter. Evelyn was all he had left in his life, the one thing worth living for.

"I've-... got her- ..." Butch beamed as he tapped a button on his left gauntlet, activating the backup nuclear battery to run his heart. He fought against Ashurr, and by pressing another button on his forearm, another blast– this time and incredibly powerful one –began to charge. Ashurr tried escaping, but Butch grabbed a hose attached to his gas tank, preventing him from fleeing. "Eat shit, you fuckin' Frieden!"

"No-!" Ashurr was cut off as Butch expelled all of the magic energy in his body, blasting Ashurr sky high until he hit the ceiling. As he came back down, a volley of rocks also followed, entombing him. But Butch knew he wasn't done.

"I'm not finished!" Ashurr growled furiously as he leapt out of the pile of debris, completely red-faced. "Not by a long-shot, Butch!"

Ashurr launched himself into the air, then he charged at Butch, gathering all of his energy into his hands, forming a massive sphere of smouldering hot ash and smoke within them. Butch got back up on his hooves, almost completely drained of power. However, he was betting on one last hunch to get him through his fight, one last lucky guess. And so he stood in place, waiting for Ashurr to unleash his final attack.

"Raagghhh!" Ashurr roared as he launched the sphere at Butch.

The orb collided with Butch's chest, exploding violently and messily. Pieces of concrete and corpses strewn about on the ground were flung meters into the air, and a massive crater was formed where Butch once stood, or rather, that Butch was standing in. As the dust settled, Ashurr gawked at Butch, who remained steadfast in his posture; he had not moved from his position, and he was completely unharmed.

"What?!" Ashurr shouted in disbelief as he watched Butch walk towards him with a menacing expression his face. "How did you survive that?!"

"When you know a kid like Eve, you tend to pick up a few tricks here and there..." Butch grinned as he chuckled under his breath. "I found out how your mystical shit works, ass-wipe. Alchemy may not be regular-old magic, but it's still the same thing once you dumb it down. Whatever the reason, the magic in my mechanical heart doesn't like that alchemy shit of yours– didn't agree with it. So I got rid of that magic, and-."

"Made your body an empty vessel!" Ashurr's eyes widened as he realized his own major miscalculation. "No, but-! This can't be!" He hyperventilated in a panic as Butch drew closer to him, and he prepared a desperate attack to blow him away. "Stay back!"

The blast of ash was absorbed by Butch before it could even make contact with him, and this frightened Ashurr to his core. He had been outsmarted by somepony he thought was a jarhead. Butch gave him a smug grin as he drove his fist into Ashurr's gut, and then he picked him up by the throat, making him dangle like a branch on a willow tree. "You know, I've had a long time to think about what happened between you and me all those years ago..." Butch grit his teeth as he thought of Elliot dying in that trench all those years ago, his experiences as a lab-rat for the Friedenstruppen to experiment on, and he felt his rage began to overtake him. He gripped Ashurr's throat harder. "Deep down, I hoped that the war didn't take you as well because I wanted you to feel what Elliot felt all those years ago. I wanted you to know what it was like. I thought that killing you would bring me peace..."

"Then take my life, soldier! Do it! You want to, don't you?!" Ashurr growled as he felt Butch's grip tighten. "End me!"

"No," Butch replied as he dropped Ashurr to the ground.

"What?!" Ashurr snarled as he sat at Butch's hooves.

"You were right about one thing, Aschetunn. We are a lot alike, you and I." Butch smirked as he looked up at the audience, who simply sat there, gawking at the corpses that were strewn about the arena. "We're both old soldiers, bound to serve our nation no matter how bad it gets. We both did terrible things in Galloway, during the war. But I moved on– found a family again..." Butch looked down at the ground as he brought out the picture of Rosie he kept in the back pouch of his utility belt. "That's what I've done for more than forty years; I've just tried to forget. But I can't run from the past, I can't bottle up everything that happened..."

"Then why not kill me?!" Ashurr shouted at him on the ground.

"Trust me, I do, with all my heart, but that wouldn't help me. I hate what you did to me, and I hate what you did to Christoph; you forced him to rebuild me in that medical pod. You forced my closest friend to bring me back from the dead! Do you know how fucked that is?! You're the reason why he's-!" Butch took a deep breath as he reorganized his thoughts. Ashurr stood up, but fell back down; Butch's punch crushed most of the bones in his ribcage. Butch grabbed the key in Ashurr's pocket, and he tucked it into yet another pouch in his combat belt. "You're a truly fucked son of a bitch, you know? You deserve death... but I ain't the executioner you're lookin' for, pal. I'm through with you, Aschetunn. Goodbye."

With that, Butch turned away, ignoring Ashurr's ranting and raving. "Don't just take my key and leave! Butch, you come back here, you coward! You come back and do your duty as a soldier! Finish me! Fuckin' kill me, you fuckin' jarhead! I killed your brother! I killed Christoph! Just kill me!"

Ashurr's voice was overwhelmed by the mad cries of the crowd. They cheered and rooted for Butch, who simply walked away, steadfast in his reluctance to kill Ashurr. "Butch! Butch! Butch! Butch!"

"Fuckin', bitch... just fuckin-... kill me..." Ashurr laid on his back, and he began to sob as he gripped the valve on his gas tank. He pulled it out with the remaining strength he had left, and slowly, his lungs began to fill with poisonous fresh air. He wheezed and hacked as his eyes rolled back into his head. Within seconds, Ashurr lost motor functions, and he died shortly after with one last, tortured breath.

"So long, Aschetunn..." Butch muttered under his breath as he looked back at the lifeless corpse of the former Friedenstruppen officer before leaving the arena with a crowd of bandits and thugs cheering him on. "I'm comin', Eve..."

****

Fluttershy grunted and growled like a wild beast as she broke through the wall of chains and grabbed Gar Nichts by the throat, slamming him into a glass test chamber with immense force. Gar Nichts exclaimed in horror as the chains on his body were shattered into tiny pieces, and he quickly replaced them before he could look down at his bare flesh.

"No! No! You can't see my flesh! It's ugly! Ugly!" Gar Nichts rambled as he stepped out of the broken test chamber and prepared a torrent of chains to strike the demonic pegasus. "Please, go away!"

Fluttershy dodged the chains and flew forward at Gar Nichts with blinding speed, and she drove her knee into his face as she flew by, sending him tumbling backwards onto the ground. He grimaced as he struggled to regain his balance. Fluttershy's strength and speed had increased tremendously, to the point where the very ground shook when she flew by.

"Her power is... unbelievable..." The wounded Winslow stared at Fluttershy in amazement as he kept his hands pressing down on his wounds. She didn't seem to respond to his presence, and she focused only on Gar Nichts as if she was in some kind of trance-like state. "She won't be able to understand me in this form... I hope it ends soon, or she'll kill that crazed stallion..."

Fluttershy roared as she took Gar Nichts by the leg and swung him over her head, driving him into the ground with a thud, and shattering more chains covering his body. In his anger, Gar Nichts recovered quicker, and he hastily retaliated before Fluttershy could close the distance. He opened more portals on the ceilings and walls until there was practically no surface area left, and thousands of steel chains shot out, all pinpointed spears aiming for her. Fluttershy seemed to teleport as she dodged them all– disappearing in one spot, then reappearing just as fast. She punched him in the stomach, sending more links flying off of his torso, revealing more of the scarred, pale skin that the chains covered. Fluttershy then began to beat him further, tearing off more of his chains as she kicked him in the chest and punched him in the face. Gar Nichts wasn't as old as Winslow thought. He was, in fact, a teenage colt.

"Oh no..." Winslow's eyes widened. He couldn't allow Fluttershy to kill a young colt. If he did, she would never forgive herself. He tried to stand up, but his wounds preventing him from doing so. He grunted as he fell to the ground again. "Fluttershy! Stop! He's only a foal!"

Fluttershy didn't listen, and she back the poor colt against a wall, pummelling him further until he began to drift between the conscious and unconscious realm. She screamed and shrieked as she continued her brutal assault, and Gar Nichts unable to fight back. Gar Nichts began to sob in agony as he was relentlessly beaten by the demon that was looming above him. The colt reached desperately towards his music box on the other side of the room as he fell to his knees, receiving more and more strikes to his face and chest.

"Fluttershy, please! Stop it! Stop it now! You're killing him!" Winslow shouted in desperation as Fluttershy rampaged like a mindless war-beast. "Stop now! Please, Fluttershy! PLEASE!"

Fluttershy's fist stopped in midair before it could reach the face of the badly beaten Gar Nichts, who barely was conscious, simply sitting in silence on his knees. He stuttered as he tried to form a sentence, but he had been hit in the head too many times, and he simply shuffled back to rest his head on the wall behind him, unable to summon any of his chains to cover his body. He was a sickly child, frail and weak, limp, starving. He whimpered as he crawled towards his music box again, to the gift his mother gave him for his first birthday.

Fluttershy fell backwards, and her body reverted. She was about to fall unconscious, but Winslow fought through his own pain and grabbed her, catching her before she hit the floor. Her eyes fluttered for a moment, then she gasped as if she had been drowning the whole time. "What happened?! Where am I?!"

"It's okay, Fluttershy, you won..." Winslow assured her as he helped her up. "You beat-."

Fluttershy ran over to Gar Nichts, who laid on his back, motionless. She wept as she reached into her utility belt for medical supplies, knowing full-well who beat Gar Nichts nearly to death. She found that her suit and the clothes on top of it had been almost torn to shreds; she lost the medicine needed to save the poor colt's life. "Winslow, do you know healing magic?!"

"Nothing that can save him in this state. He's lost too much blood..." Winslow said with a hopeless tone in his voice. "We can't-."

"Wait! The medical drone! Where is it?!" Fluttershy stood up and called out to the robot, and after a few seconds, it showed up, prepared to take orders. "Please, help him!"

The drone beeped a couple of times as it scanned Gar Nichts, checking for signs of life. A mechanical arm with a syringe at the end then popped out of the bottom of the droid, and it plunged the needle deep into the bloodied colt's chest. After a minute, Gar Nichts resumed a normal breathing pattern, and within a few more minutes, his wounds slowly closed. He opened his eyes shortly after. Fluttershy ran to him, but Gar Nichts realized where he was quickly, and he recoiled, terrified of the mare that beat him. He grabbed his music box and covered his face with his free hand.

"Please! Leave Gar Nichts alone! I don't want to fight anymore!" The colt tried to summon chains to cover his body again, but he was still too weak to conjure any. "Please, don't look at my flesh! I don't want to be here! I hate this place!"

"Please... I want to help you." Fluttershy crouched down to talk to the disturbed colt curled up beside his music box. "I'm not the same mare anymore... see?"

Gar Nichts shook his head and cried, too rattled to see that Fluttershy was docile. "Please! No! Don't hurt Gar Nichts anymore!"

Fluttershy tried a different tactic, and she wound up the music box Gar Nichts carried to soothe him. She even realized the tune. It was a song her adoptive mother used to sing to her, a lullaby. "I love this song..." Fluttershy hummed along with the tune, remembering her childhood as she rocked her head back and forth with the rhythm. "My mother sang this to me when I was a little filly..."

"Your mother...?" Gar Nichts lowered his hand but jolted a little when Fluttershy's eyes met his. He stuttered nervously, not knowing how to talk to such a quiet and graceful mare like her– much different than anypony he knew. "Y-you know song too?"

"Yes, I do." Fluttershy gave him a warm smile as she drew closer, Winslow watching her from a distance. "I'm very sorry, Gar Nichts... my name is Fluttershy. Pleased to meet you."

"Kaiser called Gar Nichts... Gar Nichts. He said Gar Nichts' real name was bad. Mother called Gar Nichts... Nick." Gar Nichts said as he opened up more to Fluttershy, letting her see his frail form, covered up by nothing but a pair of tattered brown, burlap shorts. "Nick didn't want to hurt Fluttershy..."

Gar Nichts no longer looked menacing and insane, instead, he looked timid and slant, damaged and vulnerable. His sapphire blue eyes were filled with tears, and his long periwinkle mane was covered in rust after being hidden beneath a layer of chains for so long. His white, dirty fur was mangy and ruffled, and his tail was completely missing. He wasn't a villain, he was a victim of the wasteland's cruelty.

"I should be apologizing to you, Nick... I lost control. I forgot who I was. I'm so, so sorry..." Fluttershy slowly got closer to Gar Nichts, then cautiously wrapped her arms around his sickly body, hugging him. Gar Nichts wept as he returned her hug, crying into her shoulder as he continued to hold on tight. That had been his first hug in fifteen years.

Fluttershy broke the hug, and sighed to herself, helping Gar Nichts to his hooves. The colt motioned towards Winslow, who was still wounded, seated on a piece of rubble clutching his bleeding gut. "Nick is... sorry."

"I'll be fine." Winslow nodded as he summoned Fluttershy's drone to tend to his wounds.

"Gar Nicht-... Nick wants to give you this." Gar Nichts grabbed his key out of his left pocket and handed it to Winslow, who gave him an approving nod. "Nick doesn't want to help Father Kaiser anymore..."

"Thank you... Nick..." Winslow smiled at Nick, and Nick smiled back as he grabbed his music box.

Author's Notes:

That's two members of Infernalgear taken care of! Looks like our team of heroes are on a roll! As always, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter!