Tartarus High

(A/N well a little less action than the other ones, I don't know whether to even do AJ and Rarity's mission in much detail...I've run out of enemies and ideas. would you guys be alright with just me pretty much going 'Oh it was rather uneventful' and move on to all the explanations and aftermaths of the missions? enjoy this chapter! -Dark)

“I believe I know which you would like to do, correct?” Luna asked.

“Um...if you mean search and rescue...then um...yes please.” Fluttershy replied.

“I agree wholly, believe it or not I am an amazing tracker...I had a nick name of 'Hunter of the Night' at one point, too bad it never stuck.” Luna said. Fluttershy smiled at her and they got in line.

“Alright we've got a-” the woman behind the table started, but someone said something into her ear.

“We have reports of the Ponyville Elementary school getting attacked and now Mrs. Cherilee and the students are missing, can you handle that?” the woman asked quickly.

“Of course!” Fluttershy squeaked and was halfway out of the door by the time Luna registered she had moved.

“I can see you are very motivated to find these people.” Luna commented when she finally caught up to Fluttershy at the schoolhouse. It was relatively undamaged, but the inside looked like a tornado had come through.

“Cherilee is a good friend of mine and I can't help but worry for the Children...Applejack and Rarity's little sisters were part of that group.” Fluttershy explained.

“I see...oh hello, I also see a trail.” Luna said, looking low to the ground. It was a set of odd Taloned tracks around smaller human tracks. It led right into the Mountains nearby.

“I know that mountain...there are dragons there...” Fluttershy said lowly, glaring slightly. Suddenly she fanned her wings out and took to the air, Luna hot on her heels.

“Why would the dragons attack?” Luna asked.

“I don't know. They're not openly violent so there is a reason. The fact the schoolhouse isn't burned to a crisp tells me there is something important we don't know.” Fluttershy called over the wind.

“The tracks go around the mountain and into the topmost cave.” Luna said when they arrived near enough to the mountain for a magnification spell to see the tracks.

“That's the Hoard cave...” Fluttershy said lowly, but continued anyways.

“I knew kidnapping the little humans would bring warriors here...” a deep voice rumbled as they entered the cave. Luna saw Fluttershy slowly reaching for her Ninjato. She grasped both hilts but did not draw yet.

“Why did you take them?” Fluttershy asked. Suddenly a giant red draconic head appeared from the dark and stared right at her.

“Humans were attacking us. We want to know why.” he growled.

“You'll get no answers until we know the children and their teacher is safe.” Luna demanded. The Dragon flicked his hea and another dragon hidden in the shadows left for a moment and returned with the group of scared people.

“They are safe...now why do you attack?” the Dragon demanded. Fluttershy let go of the hilts.

“Humans would not be so foolish to attack dragons. Tell me what happened, if I know anything of it I will give any answers I have.” Luna said.

“...Humans came from the forest...they were strong and faster than I've ever seen. They had blades weird like it was their arms, but they spoke with human voices and walked on two legs. They killed two of my Kin before they were slain.” the Dragon explained.

“Hm...do you have the bodies? I can examine them and see if they are human.” Fluttershy said. He moved his head and suddenly the room was filled with a decaying stench as the room lit up. Two corpses were thrown out. Fluttershy and Luna instantly knew they weren't human.

“Those are creatures of Tartarus...” Luna said.

“Tartarus? The place of monsters? Why are they here?” the Dragon asked.

“the Gatekeeper went missing. People like us are being sent to search for her and others like these children as well as exterminate other creatures of Tartarus.” Luna explained.

“Hm...well then I propose a deal. We aid you in the search for the gatekeeper as long as you agree to protect our eggs while we are gone and give my warriors spots in these forces of yours.” the Dragon offered.

“I am highly ranked, I cannot guarantee spots in our forces but I can guarantee your eggs will be guarded.” Luna said.

“Very well, see what you can do. Take my Daughter with you, her brother was one of the ones killed and she is restless and eager to fight against what killed him.” he said as a smaller sleek, black dragon stepped forward.

“Very well.” Luna said.

“I am Onyx.” the Dragon said.

“Fluttershy...” said.

“Luna.” Luna said. The three nodded and turned to the children.

“Come on, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked.

“We're ok miss Fluttershy...” Sweetie Belle said, she was a bit shaken.

“It was pretty darn Scary, but after we got here they were pretty nice.” Applebloom said.

“Mrs. Cherilee tried to protect us...but she's just a teacher...” Scootaloo said.

“I must say, I never thought I'd be getting a battle scar.” Cherilee said, a gauze pad already plastered on the side of her face.

“Oh my...I'm going to have to look at that when we get back.” Fluttershy said. Cherilee nodded.

“You hear it?” Onyx asked lowly.

“Yes.” Luna said.

“I do...” Fluttershy said. There was a grumbling sound nearby that Onyx recognized.

“Those creatures...” she hissed. The others nodded. “Shy one, take the regular people and secure backup of some sort...we will hold them off.” Onyx said.

“No, Fluttershy is a better fighter than I. Cherilee, do you know how to use one of these?” Luna asked, pulling a handgun out and offering it to Cherilee.

“I'm not as boring as I look.” Cherilee responded, taking the handgun and spinning it around to check the clip and the sights, then cocked it.

“Whoa miss Charilee.” Scootaloo said. The teacher grinned at them.

“Right. Ponyville is about a ten minute run until it's in sight, go as quick as you can. Onyx, do you have any quarrels about taking Fluttershy on your back?” Luna asked.

“Not if there is good reason.” Onyx replied.

“Right, We'll all take to the air but Fluttershy needs something under her for best accuracy, you two will circle Cherilee and the students until they are in sight of ponyville. I'll post up on a cloud and pick any off I can. When the citizens are safe we will finish them.” Luna explained. The other two nodded. Onyx had to admit, she was impressed by the rifle Fluttershy had.

“That's a lot of them...” Fluttershy mumbled.

“Scared?” Onyx called.

“Of course, it's in my nature. But so is being calm and collected.” Fluttershy answered with a smile before cocking the rifle and unleashing shot after shot. Every single one at least hit a target, more than half of them felling the beasts instantly. Fluttershy asked Onyx to go in closer for a better shot every now and then and when that happened the dragon would always give them a blast of fire. It slowed them down fantastically.

When the students finally made it back to the town Luna met up with them with her Glaive out.

“Right. There are fifteen left. Onyx, how many can you take?” Luna asked.

“I killed ten in the last attack.” Onyx said proudly.

“Perfect, five each.” Luna said and dived down. She was surprised when Fluttershy followed, her Ninjato held in reverse grip as her wings were held close to her body. Onyx grinned and followed suit.

All three of them fanned their wings out right before impact, the three of them hitting the group with enough force to shatter necks and spines yet soft enough for them to be unaffected. Onyx chomped down on one's head, killing it, and blasted torrent after torrent of fire at them. Whenever they got close her bladed tail, talons or teeth would rip them apart.

Luna decapitated the second of hers while she still had the element of surprise and managed to keep the other three at bay by spinning the Glaive and thrusting it at them at random times. They managed to surround her, but she blasted one in the face with her jetpack as she used the thrust to break through another's defenses, one left now.

She slowly beat it's defenses down and shattered it's blades by spinning the Glaive and kicking at it's knees. It was rather like a helicopter blade when spinning like that,there had to be some magic involved. It ended with her Glaive in it's head from the chin.

The Dragon and the Angel looked over to see Fluttershy's fight when they were done, but the shy Valkyrie was busy bandaging a cut on her arm, humming to herself.

Fluttershy's fight had gone very quickly. These things may have been quick and strong, but she was just about, if not as, fast as Rainbow Dash. With her Ninjato held in reverse grip she was able to dash through the crowd of creatures and slit important tendons and knees, causing them all to falter. When this happened she went for their throats. As she clashed blades with the last one, the one before was not quite dead yet with it's throat slit and slashed at her. She sidestepped it, it nicked her arm, but the brunt o the force went straight into embedding the blade into the final creature's head. With a grunt she sat down and pulled out a medical case and quickly began bandaging herself, humming.

“What? Essentially they're brutes...I specialize against them...” Fluttershy explained.

“...I thought you were just the medic...” Onyx said.

“Oh she's the Medic, the scout/sniper and the Assassin.” Luna said, smiling at her friend.

“Well, what do we do now?” Onyx asked. Luna looked at the dragon. She was slim and small, definitely not as big as the other dragons.

“Well first thing's first, why are you so small?” Luna asked.

“...it is a birth Defect. I stopped growing once I hit my teens, I am about twenty of your years old, but I am as old as a Drake.” she said. She was about twice as tall as Luna's head and was probably big enough to hold more than just Fluttershy, but barely.

“Well, that means you won't cause so much of a fuss once in Ponyville, we will need to wait for my sister before we go higher up to talk about your terms. Like I said, we can guarantee Egg safety, but dragon additions to the teams will need to be discussed more thoroughly.” Luna explained.

“We just want to get rid of those monsters...being added to your teams would just allow us to know what to do.” Onyx said.

“Good point. Well let us go.” Luna said.