Tartarus High

(A/N sorry about short RariJack mission but I ran outta juice here. some foreboding, Twilight won't be the only one- but it'll be rare. Twilight was practically drenched in Manticore blood and she had so many open wounds. the drug will be explained further in the next chapter, there will be an absence or real action like this for the next few chapters, recoveries and explanations. warning ahead, the next few chapters will delve heavily into the romance tab :3 Enjoy! -Dark)

“Well Darling, what do you suppose we ought to do?” Rarity asked her partner.

“Well Ah don' know about you, but ah don' wanna travel too far on these jetpack contraptions so somethin' close.” Applejack said.

“Hm...well let's try the support line and see if anything is close.” Rarity offered. AJ nodded.

“Something close? Uh...we've got one or two, how's supporting a battalion between here and Canterlot? We got a distress message, they can hold out for another day or two but they need help.” the Woman said.

“Sound good?” Rarity asked. AJ answered by taking the information.

“You the support?” the commander of the battalion asked when the two arrived, albeit winded- AJ from running and Rarity from a bit of magic exhaustion- and panting.

“Yeah, jus' need to catch our breath...” AJ answered.

“Right...are...are you all? We've got some sort of tree people on the other side of the ditch.” the commander asked.

“Tree people? How barbaric.” Rarity commented as she traced a simple glyph on her gun with magic and doing the same to AJ's double barrel.

“What'd that do?” AJ asked.

“the Glyph is very simple, I'm not too well versed with them. It reads as Fire and will make anything coming out fire, so basically incendiary ammunition.” Rarity explained.

“We need to get some Mages in the force...” the commander mumbled as he showed the girls to the barricade.

“Oh boy, Ah got this one.” AJ said when she saw the tree people on the other side of the wooden barricade, kind of ironic really.

“Be my guest Darling.” Rarity said, holstering her customized handgun. AJ grinned and shouldered her double barrel. Walking up slowly she soon broke into a brisk trot, then a dash as she leapt into the air and did a flip over the barricade. As she flipped, one of the Ents looked it up and found it's face full of burning lead.

“HOO-EY!” Applejack yelled as she dodged around the walking forest, breaking the trees in half with well aimed drop kicks when she had to reload.

“Well I suppose I should join...” Rarity mumbled, pulling out her handgun and leaping over the barricade herself and joining her friend.

After a few minutes they got swarmed, but the Ents suddenly found themselves burning and chopped up at the same time. Rarity had flaming claws and AJ's longsword was aflame as well.

“Damn girl, if yuh get tired like that maybe yuh should get some conditionin' an' stuff from Twi.” AJ said as she noticed Rarity was panting.

“Believe it or not using Glyphs as powerful as this, no matter how simple, take a lot out of you. The only reason Twilight can do them so easily is because she knows everything about them. Not to mention her reserves of magic are up there with Celestia and Luna.” Rarity said as they hacked living branch after branch.

“Ah guess.” Applejack said. The rest of the fight went rather quickly, the forest of living trees reduced to blazing ashed in minutes.

“Well, that was easier than I expected...” Rarity said.

“Yeah, me too. Ah guess with jus' a little fire these guy go down pretty darn fast.” Applejack said, shouldering her double barrel and turning towards the camp.

“I guess that Demon Blood really does work...” the commander said.

“I'm sorry...Demon...what?” Rarity asked.

“Uh...shit...” the commander sighed.

“Pal, the hell are you talkin' about?” AJ asked.

“Um...i guess I wasn't supposed to mention it...” the commander said.

“If you don' start talkin we'll find out if this works as well on people as it does on trees...” AJ said threateningly, nodding her head towards the double barrel she had shouldered.

“...Fine...” he said.

“-ight?” Twilight heard, she was barely waking up.

“Twilight are you alright?” she heard again. It sounded like her brother. Her vision focused and she saw that it was him with Celestia standing next to him, worry evident in both of their looks.

“Hey...why are you guys all...purple?” Twilight mumbled.

“W-what? Twilight are you ok?” Shining responded.

“Yeah, I feel better...why are you all purple?” Twilight asked again sitting up.

“Twilight...your eyes aren't open.” Celestia said.

“Huh?” she said. She yelped in surprise when she found that she could see herself. Quickly, she opened her eyes. Her right eye stung a moment, so she snapped that one shut.

“There, that's better.” Twilight said, her vision returning to normal.

“Wait...Twilight...open your right eye again.” Celestia said, suddenly right in front of her. Confused, Twilight cautiously opened it. As she did she felt it sting a bit more, but it was bearable now. Celestia gasped.

“What's wrong? Is it damaged? I can't really see out of it very well.” Twilight asked.

“I...don't think so...mirror...” Celestia said, looking back at Shining. He handed a mirror to her and she held it up. The first thing Twilight noticed was her new scar, four slashes going diagonal from above her brow to cross the bridge of her nose with three vertical from brow to chin. Then she noticed her actual eye. It looked dead, it was a milky purple with no pupil. When she finally got over the shock she now noticed something that scared her. Her teeth were sharper, like fangs. And her undamaged eye had a red tint to it. When she turned to get a better look at her weird new teeth, she felt something on her back as a shot of pain went through it.

She looked over her shoulder and froze. Black draconic wings. Not thinking quite right, her hands flew to her head to search for horns. She whimpered in horror when she in fact felt horns. They were about three inches long, they were spiral-ridged and they were rounded and curved slightly.

“What the fuck happened to me?!” she screamed.

“T-twilight...we...we don't know.” Celestia said, a bit disarmed by the vulgar outburst.

“Wait...did you say she took a Manticore stinger?” Shining asked.

“I thought I got all the poison out though.” Twilight said.

“That's poison, it wouldn't mutate someone.” Celestia said.

“Then I think we actually know what it is...” Cadence said.

“I-if you know anything about what happened...” Twilight practically begged.

“While you were unconscious you started screaming and writhing and all of this happened, but your eye was already like that. I think the demonic blood from the beasts got into your system and enhanced the Demon Blood drug and turned you half-demon...even though that's really cliché.” Shining explained.

“Wait...Demon Blood...drug?” Celestia asked.

“...Don't tell me they're doing it without the students' consent...FUCKERS....ok...well...let me explain then...they put an experimental drug, named Demon Blood after what it's made from, into the food they serve you and it enhances your strengths and everything...I imagine it's not much of a difference until it's been going on for a while...” Shining said. Oh he was pissed they did this to his family.

“What exactly is it made from?!” Twilight asked.

“Blood of Demons...called it the 'Tartarus project' or something...” Shining growled.

“...I...what am I going to do now that I'm like this? I mean I can use illusionary magic to his everything but if something hits my head, or I bite something...or something comes close to my back it'd be useless!” Twilight exclaimed.

“I don't know...” Shining growled.

“Do you think the students and faculty would be able to see past it? I wouldn't want you to get isolated...” Cadence said.

“Oh I'm already Isolated somewhat. Nobody likes the 'Goth badass' for some reason. I have my group of friends and that's all I need, their opinions are all that matter.” Twilight said, now that he brain was going she was able to start thinking.

“You'll be fine then. Maybe Dash's conspiracy theory was right after all...Luna and I are going to the higher ups for sure...” Celestia said.

“Hey...” Twilight started after closing her eyes and opening them a few times.

“What is it?” Celestia asked.

“This eye...it's weird...if...if I focus on it...everything is all purple, but it's weird...I can see myself, I can see your backs...I can see everything around me, even through the walls of the tent...it's all...purple...it gets stronger when I close it...” Twilight explained.

“That sounded like a magical sight spell...are you using any magic at all?” Celestia asked.

“No...but if I focus on my other eye they both return to normal, if I focus on my right...i see like that.” Twilight replied.

“Really?...I saw you use a spell before you passed out...what was it?” Celestia asked.

“Um...a standard healing spell...I thought it worked, I guess it kind of did something else...” Twilight replied.

“I think maybe the magic must have manifested in that eye and on top of healing it, giving you half magical sight...I've never seen anything like it.” Celestia said.

“Well, all of this new transformation and stuff aside...I'd hate to do it but we need to get back to Canterlot and you need to get back to Ponyville, can you walk Twi?” Shining said.

“Uh...” Twilight started, getting to her feet. “Yeah...my right leg hurts though...so does my right side and my arms...” Twilight explained.

“That's expected, your improvised blood glyph didn't completely heal everything so it was too risky to use another healing spell, so you'll have to recover normally. I give it about a week, unless if you get some sort of regeneration boost from this new...transformation. I imagine you could fly with those, you feel well enough to try?” Celestia suggested.

“Um...sure?” Twilight said.

“It's easy now that you've got the hang of it, isn't it?” Celestia asked from her palce hovering next to Twilight. It had taken quite a few tries, but Twilight had finally been able to fly and hover without support from her jetpack. She held her side as she flew and tilted her head so the wind didn't sting her still raw scar, but she couldn't help but give a sharp grin. Literally.

“Well, let's see if those muscles are new or developed. Tell me immediately if your wing arms get tired.” Celestia said. Twilight nodded and they shot off towards Ponyville. After a bit Twilight did get tired, so she resigned to gliding with the jetpack on, creating a balanced flight.