Tartarus High

“Ya hear that?” A Nightstalker Twilight was on patrol with. They were on one of the Patrols near Ponyville.

“Yeah...that sounds like it's coming from Zecora's Hut.” Twilight said. They made their way over from the trees and were glad to see Zecora's Hut undisturbed. But there were what looked like Tartarus Guards leaving.

“Man she was useless...she only knows where the Timber wolves are and they're allies...” one of them said.

“She did tell us she saw the Manticores around here so we're on the right track at least.” one of the woman with the four man group said. Twilight quickly searched the area with her magic eye and found the Manticores waiting for them, yet out of sight, on their current path. Twilight looked at the Nightstalker with her. She made a 'shh' motion and pointed at where they could barely see the Manticores, then at the guards. He nodded. They dropped right in front of the Guards.

“Whoa Fuck! You Timber Wolves need to be...wait...” the leader said.

“Shh...” Twilight said and pointed her finger. “Ambush.” she whispered. The leader's eyes widened.

“What are you?” he whispered.

“Later.” Twilight replied. She made a few hand signals, telling them to support her and ally. They nodded, confused this creature could talk, let alone know their hand signals. Twilight looked at her partner and nodded. They dashed up the trees and rocketed at the Manticores, spooking them out o their hiding place. There was a total of three. The guards immediately opened fire on one of them, bringing it down for Twilight to rip it's throat out. Her partner was holding one off while Twilight had grabbed the others' tail and ripped it off. She then spun around and shoved it into it's throat and twisted, stabbing the stinger up through the jaw and into it's brain.

The third Manticore had realized these two black beasts would kill it, so it charged past Twilight's partner and at the guards. Twilight and her Partner reacted instantly, but the beast had already torn them apart with it's claws, teeth and stinger. By the time they got to it and finished it, the others didn't look like they'd survive.

Twilight acted quickly. First, she cast a few healing spells to stop all the bleeding. Then, she used a few minor blood glyphs to stabilize them.

“Grab those two will ya?” Twilight asked. Her partner nodded and strung two of them around his shoulder while she did the same.

“Whoa what happened to them?” Dash asked. Fluttershy went straight to treating them. The other commanders were out on patrol.

“We found them on patrol and saved them from a Manticore ambush. One got around us and attacked them.” Twilight said.

“You did a good job with Healing Spells Twilight...you're getting better.” Fluttershy said as she put various healing ointments and herbs from around the forest as Twilight and her Partner reverted back to their human forms.

“W-wait...T-twilight?” the Leader coughed.

“Yeah, that's me. Why? You know me?” Twilight asked.

“Wait...you're not a wolf thing anymore...you're...” he said, eyes widening.

“Yeah, Welcome to the Half Demon colony. Though now we're called Nightstalkers. Long story.” Twilight said.

“You're...treating our wounds?” he asked.

“Why wouldn't we? We went through all that trouble to help you.” Twilight's partner said.

“...but Why?” he asked.

“What are they telling you we're all bloodthirsty monsters?” someone asked.

“Well...yeah...you killed two of us before you left.” the Leader said.

“And those who I killed murdered innocent people. One of them was human, one of them was half Demon.” Twilight said.

“What?” the leader said.

“Great they're hunting us aren't they?” someone groaned.

“Yeah...but a lot of us don't really believe most of the stories...but you're on a shoot on sight policy though...a lot of us would rather avoid you though, or figure out what's really happening...but a lot more would just shoot...” the Leader explained.

“Well we're not monsters. We'll help any of them we see, as long as they're doing something right...but if they strike first we strike back. We're not going to go on a rampage for one person's mistake though...” Twilight explained.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“If one of you kills one of us, we'll kill him. But because of that we're not going to kill every other Tartarus Guard we see...like I said, we're not monsters.” Twilight said.

“Great...that makes us the monsters.” he groaned.

“No...just the ones that would attack us for no reason and shoot on sight without question.” Fluttershy piped in.

“Glad we thought you were some sort of Timber wolf...or we may have shot...” the leader chuckled.

“Well actually we are part Timber Wolf...like I said long story...but long story short a spell went wrong and we have Demon and Timber wolf blood.” Twilight said.

“Oi! I heard a couple of guards are here!” Dash's voice rang out as she and the other commanders came in.

“Yeah, they're cool though.” someone said.

“Good.” Dash said as she roughly dropped a man onto the ground, right on his broken leg.

“Bitch!” he hissed.

“Bastard.” Dash said, kicking him.

“What's with him?” Twilight asked.

“He and his team got ambushed by those humanoid things on the other side of the forest...me and my patrol dropped in to help them. By the end only he was still alive and he just turned around and shot at us. Didn't do much damage but it'll take a bit before that closes up.” Dash said, motioning towards where one of her Nightstalkers was holding a bandaged arm.

“And now we have the monster.” Twilight said, getting to her feet.

“The hell you gonna do to me?! Kill me?!” the man yelled.

“No. we're not going to patch you up though...you hurt us, we leave you hurt. But you didn't kill one of us so you're not dead yet. We're gonna send you home with them.” Twilight said, pointing a thumb at the other guards. “And we remember faces pretty well...so if we see you out there again we won't be as helpful.” she continued, motioning for the hurt Nightstalker, now in human form, to come closer. She did and Twilight gently extracted the bullet and left her to Fluttershy.

“You're getting very good at that...you're like everyone's mother.” Celestia giggled. Twilight smiled at that, but frowned as the man started laughing maniacally.

“Mother?! you're all fucking monsters!” he laughed. Twilight nodded to dash, who kicked his head and knocked him unconscious.

“I never really liked that guy...” the Leader of the other squad said, earning a laugh from Dash. “So...you said we're going back...what will we do?” he asked.

“Up to you. Tell them what we are and what we do.” Twilight shrugged.

“You're not worried about us telling them where you are?” he asked. Twilight laughed. “Come here, is he good to walk?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded. Twilight helped him to his feet and supported him. “How big do you think this place is?” Twilight asked.

“A few stories...” he answered.

“What do you think this is?” Twilight continued, going up the stairs to the walkway door.

“Some building somewhere.” the Leader answered.

“How many of us do you think there are?” Twilight asked, stepping onto the walkway.

“Couple dozen at the most...” he answered unsurely.

“This is the largest tree in the Everfree Forest. It has over ten floors, a basement and tunnels system. We are on the outskirts of the Timber wolf Pack, we are part of said pack. Our numbers number just over two hundred and counting. Everyone can take a Manticore one on one successfully.” Twilight explained.

“One of us can probably take out a three man Tartarus guard squad alone. At the least. Now, do the math. That means you would need at least six hundred to fight us. Not to mention the Timber Wolves, another hundred or so. Plus, the Commanders we've been known as...we could take much more than that...so I guess you could say it'd take nearly a thousand to win against us.” Twilight explained casually. The leader's jaw dropped.

“And trust me, we'll know the second they enter the forest. If they attack us here we will show no mercy. Remember that.” Twilight warned as she let him back down next to his team.

“Right...got it...any way we could ah...join you?” he asked.

“Well you'd have to go through a kinda painful transformation into a Nightstalker...or if you were a half demon you'd just have to take a little test, but for you it'd just be you guys doing errands and stuff...grunt work. That is, until you solo a Manticore to prove you can handle the bigger stuff.” Twilight explained.

“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

“Because the readers wanna know this stuff!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Huh?” everyone said.

“oh...um...Twilight you explain it!” Pinkie said, Dash laughing at the randomness.

“Right...you asked. Simple as that.” Twilight said, giving Pinkie an odd glance.

“Really?...huh...” he said.