Tartarus High

(A/N What's this? an entire chapter for one battle? I must say, I think I may have outdone my self. look in the comments below for an example of what Pauldrons are and something close to the skull I'm talking about. Enjoy! -Dark)

“Is it all done?” Twilight asked Rarity.

“Yes it is, we're good to go Darling.” she replied. Twilight nodded and turned on her earpiece.

“Do you see them Love?” She asked.

“Yes, there are Manticores, Slicers and quite a few large ones...they look like giant demon bears.” Celestia replied.

“We got a few accounts of them. Apparently the troops are calling them Ursa.” Twilight said.

“Yes...they're advancing quickly, estimated time until arrival twenty minutes.” Celestia said.

“Well then let's meet them.” Twilight said. She turned around to where her Nightstalkers and the friendly Tartarus Guards were waiting alike. She raised a hand and made a chopping motion. 'Forward'. Something so simple. Yet it yielded one of the most impressive advances ever.

All of the Nightstalkers changed. Some running on their legs, others flying through the air. Twilight took to the air and went straight for the mountain overlooking the valley they had chosen to meet the Demons. On the top was Celestia, Fluttershy and all of the snipers in the force.

“I've got them. They'll recharge after three minutes to full strength, if you completely exhaust them it'll take three times as long so nine minutes.” Twilight said, teleporting a pallet of batteries. They had all been given customized rifles that would take the batteries and, depending on what glyph on the barrel was used, would create different magical effects.

“Alright...make your shots count, don't fire unless you're sure you won't hit a friendly. Priorities are as follows. Supporting allies, catching demons that break through and finally the stronger ones.” Fluttershy said calmly. Twilight nodded to her and flew up to Dash, who was in charge of the aerial forces.

“You all ready?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, I can see there's quite a few harpies there.” Dash said.

“Yep, that'll be your job. Once they're all down help the ground forces.” Twilight said.

“Right.” Dash said and charged forward. Twilight nodded and teleported back to the front of the ground forces.

The demons charged once they saw the ground forces, but were immediately devastated by a deafening volley. Each shot was complimented by a magical flash, increasing their speed and penetration. The first two lines of demons were down immediately.

Then the ground forces met with Twilight at the lead. She had upgraded her Reaver design and now had blades sprouting all over her arms instead of in the few places. She let her cold side out. She grabbed a Manticore by the neck with her jaws and crushed it, flinging it into a harpy that came in low. She then stood on her back legs and roared, which was followed by the roars of the Nightstalkers in the air as they crashed into the air forces.

Twilight was face to face with an Ursa now. She tackled it to get it away from her allies. She was surrounded by enemies now, but that didn't matter. It swiped at her, cleaving the head off a slicer in the process, and she leaped above the swing. She shoved her claws into the soft flesh of it's neck, but it only roared and shook her off. She did a kick flip and dropped to all fours to dodge another swing. She then dashed around it and climbed up it's back. She shoved her claws into the back of it's skulls and pulled it's head back. She looked over to the mountain top and there was a volley of sniper fire. Around thirty armor piercing bullets went into, and through, the beast's skull. Most of the bullets continued through and hit other demons, but the Ursa went limp as it's head was turned into bloody mush.

She growled as she was surrounded by slicers, but grinned as her, now much larger, curved blades slid out. What ensued next was what one could consider a dance of blades. She spun around and weaved in and out of the attacks, often causing them to hit another of it's kind. She would slash and stab out with her blades and even lunge out with her jaws and crush a skull or two. When she disposed of this group she was allowed to breathe a bit. She looked around and saw her Pack was in a similar situation. They were fighting of Manticores and Slicers. Ten were fighting an Ursa at once, quickly bringing it down. She found Celestia with her jaws ripping out the throat of a Manticore and Dash ripping the wings off a harpy. Rarity was combining her dashes with a series of teleport spells, as were the Mages following her, and effectively confusing and thinning down the enemies. Spike and Emerald were probably the most obvious fighters. Together they would swing their blades like a flaming tornado. She was surprised when Spike used it Dragon's Maw and spewed lava onto a horde of Demons.

And now there was an Ursa behind her. She spun around to fight it, but it stopped mid swing and fell limp to the ground. As it fell, she saw Fluttershy pull blades out of it's temples and flip off.

“Hi...ran out of ammunition.” she panted. Twilight grinned and bumped fists with her. Nearly half of the demons had been decimated, but Twilight began noticing some injuries and fatal wounds on her own side.

“Let's go save some lives before we start fighting again.” Twilight suggested. Fluttershy nodded. They went around the field, where uninjured or minorly wounded ones would drag the incapacitated ones. There were a few dead already, but the medics from the Tartarus guard were keeping the others alive as best they could. Fluttershy would give them something to ease the pain and prepare for what seemed like a Surgery, then Twilight would use a blood Glyph to heal them with the guidelines Fluttershy had prepared. After a while though, Twilight was exhausted. A few had died before they got to them, but the rest were at least going to survive.

“I'm...almost...out of magic.” Twilight panted.

“Here.” Celestia said, dashing up and dropping a few overcharged batteries. “I knew you'd use up your magic helping people so I prepared these.” she continued.

“Thanks...” Twilight said and grabbed them one by one, draining them into her own body and then putting them in her pack to recharge. She wasn't back at full strength, but it was good enough. She looked to where she would be needed most.

“Celestia, I need you to go support Rarity, she's running low on magic and needs to rest. Fluttershy, if you're up to it go find the other assassins and work on the Ursa. I'm going to go help Dash and the others, they're getting pushed back.” Twilight said. The three nodded and they took off in three different directions.

“Damn it! These fuckers are tough!” Dash yelled, prying the jaw off of one of the harpies and breaking it's neck.

“Get back Dash!” someone suddenly yelled. She didn't hesitate to drop a yard or two and backwing. Just in time too, Twilight came flying in. her curved blades were out and she was spinning, almost like a drill. She barreled through the group that Dash was holding off and stopped her spin. She proceeded to reach her hand out to Dash with a wink. Dash grinned and took it and they began to spin each other. They cut down what was near them and then Twilight let go, launching Dash through the lines. With a sonic explosion, she broke the sound barrier. The resulting blast blew a group of Harpies away, blood streaming from every opening as their insides were turned to mush.

Dash yelled in delight as she sped around, somehow not losing momentum, as her blades suddenly appeared to be made of pure rainbows as they left double trails behind her. She diced and weaved through the harpies. To her it was like slow motion as her blades cut through bone and blade alike like it was ice cream. When she finally stopped she was panting and her arms were so sore she couldn't move them, and her wing arms were about to give out, but she was grinning. Twilight tossed her a battery and pointed to the ground, where Pinkie was fighting a hoard of slicers, giggling like a maniac. Dash nodded and absorbed the battery, abating her exhaustion.

Twilight and Dash launched downwards at Pinkie, she saw this and batted the last Slicer away like a baseball. Then she caught the two, who dived at her feet first, and spun a few times before flinging them with the large axe at two Ursa. The two spinning Drill-like woman put holes in the Beasts' heads without getting a single drop of blood on them.

“Fuck a Wyrm!” someone yelled over the radio. The snipers scattered into the battle as three hulking forms blasted flames at where they were.

“on it.” Fluttershy's voice said.

“The fuck is a Wyrm?!” Dash yelled.

“Basically...Demon Dragons. But a hell of a lot bigger and more dangerous.” Twilight replied. She saw Fluttershy, with her group of nineteen other assassins in tow, climb up the Mountain. They waited until the Wyrms had passed over them before they launched upwards into it's underside. Some went through the membrane of the wings, others embedded blades into vital organs. The ones who went through the membrane, Fluttershy being one of them, launched back downwards and landed on it's head. No matter what you are, but when you're sandwiched by twenty sets of blades on both sides of your head, you're going to go down. They all leaped back onto the mountainside as the beast began to drop. The other two Wyrms had noticed this and were turning around to do another fire run. But suddenly there was an earth shattering roar, or series of roars, as about a dozen dragons burst from over the mountain.

All of them impacted the much larger beast and clung to it with their teeth and claws. As one the dragons blasted the beast with their fire, effectively scorching every square inch of flesh on the beast as they ripped and tore at it with their talons. The Wyrm began to fall to the ground and they all launched off and at the other. It was fast for how big it was as it fled from the group of dragons. The fire and their proximity to it had left the Dragons' talons and teeth red hot.

“Well that solves that problem.” Fluttershy said.

“That still only counts as one!” Luna's voice called over the radio, earning a giggle from Fluttershy.

“Are you two counting kills?” Celestia asked.

“Oh yes, rather fun...though Dear Fluttershy got a huge head start while she was sniping, I've managed to catch up...” Luna replied.

“Barely.” Fluttershy giggled as she and her assassins swarmed an Ursa.

“Darling, hate to break the fun but Celestia isn't enough to help us down here, we need support.” Rarity said. Twilight didn't hesitate as she led the snipers that had ran out of ammunition in a charge towards Rarity's opponents.

More than half of the Mages were unconscious from magic exhaustion, Rarity was siphoning power from a small case of batteries Celestia had summoned to them to wake them up. Twilight joined her in this as the rest helped defend. When they were all back in fighting shape Twilight took the rest of the batteries and absorbed them.

“Everyone clear the battlefield. All magic users come to my position.” Twilight said and launched back a few hundred feet, where she started gathering her magic. As one, the Nightstalkers struck final blows or avoided enemies as they retreated past her. All magic users crouched next to and behind her and began lending her their power. Five minutes later the demons were upon them, the Dragons had led the last Wyrm to her as well. Just as they all lunged at the group of Mages, Twilight opened her right eye alone.

Instead of the normal glossy, pale purple it was shining brightly. A red line began to draw itself on the eyes as she clenched her teeth. It formed a six pointed star and was drawn almost like a pentagram. It was a Blood Glyph she was developing. Once it was complete and the red lines attached to her eye, earning a hiss of pain, it was branded and her other eye shot open. All of the magic she had been gathering and borrowing was released in a blinding blast of power. It was wide at first, but Twilight focused and concentrated it on the small group of enemies remaining.

Her forces were all exhausted now, she couldn't stand any more casualties. The enemy's forces had finally been trimmed down to enough where this would work effectively. When the condensed magic exploded she shielded them from the flash and the aftershock, but they still felt it. When the dust and magic finally dispersed, there was literally nothing left. There were small shields spotting the landscape, where dead or injured Nightstalkers were, but everything else was gone. The mountain had been sliced clean in half, the other half vaporized just like everything else in the valley.

The Mages all fell to their hands and knees, but Twilight fell flat on her face in exhaustion. Dash yelped and picked her up.

“Ugh..Dash...t-take Flutters and get the ones out there back here...” Twilight said weakly.

“You alright?” Dash asked.

“I will be...imagine flying the opposite way while inside a tornado for three days straight...but with magic usage...” Twilight said.

“Got it..see you in a bit.” Dash said with a salute as she, Fluttershy and their troops dashed out to collect the casualties.

“Hey this could be a helmet...” Dash said, dropping something onto the ground a few minutes later. It looked like a Dragon's Skull.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“Wyrm skull...it's body was on the very edge of your blast. There's a lot of bones and stuff out there, for some reason they all shrunk. If we made this into a helmet would you wear it?” Dash replied.

“No...but something in it's likeness yes. Pauldrons would be cool too.” Twilight replied with a smile.

“Gotcha.” Dash said.

“Right...now, I need a nap.” Twilight said. She closed her eyes and was instantly asleep.