Tartarus High

(A/N not quite as much fighting as the last one, but I planned it like that. I admit i burst out laughing when I wrote the end. Enjoy! -Dark)

“But sis!” Applebloom protested.

“Bloom save it. You and the others are strong, but I don't want any of you crusaders right in the fighting. Besides, who else is gonna watch over the elementary kids? If they slip past us it'll be your job to stop them.” Applejack explained.

“Ugh...fine...let a couple slip past then will ya? If we're defendin' our friends we might as well show off.” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, the three of us are better fighters than most of the newbies! Octy and Vinyl are examples of that.” Scootaloo said.

“I might.” Applejack said.

“We'll have our earpieces in...if AH hear yuh get hurt Ah'm chargin' out there.” Applebloom said.

“Deal.” Applejack said.

“They're coming...estimated size half of our own, but they have two Ursa.” they all heard on the radio.

“The hell? There were more of them...Alright, looks like you guys might get more than I thought...if they're trying to sneak around we need someone here to at least warn us of it.” Applejack said.

“On it.” the three said with a salute.

That'll be the nice guards coming to protect us.” Miss Cherilee said with a smile when there was a knock on the schoolroom door.

“Howdy Miss Cherilee.” Applebloom said. Cherilee froze. She looked at them. They were armed and outfitted like the others.

“The Crusaders?” she said, the other students looking around their teacher. “I thought you all moved to Canterlot.” she continued.

“That's what Mac told you? Nah, we went to live with Twi an' AJ an' all them.” Applebloom said.

“My daddy said they were those evil demon things though!” Diamond Tiara said.

“Demons yes, evil no.” Sweetie Belle said.

“Wait...are you?” Silver Spoon started.

“Nightstalkers? Yeah.” Scootaloo replied.

“Wait...where's the guards that were supposed to protect us?” Cherilee asked.

“Those are us.” Scootaloo said.

“What? But...but you're not even the oldest in the class!” Silver Spoon pouted.

“I'm gonna tell my daddy on you and he's going to tell your commander that you're a demon!” Diamond Tiara threatened.

“Your daddy can't do anything. And even if he did go to our commander, who do you think sent us here? AJ is our commander. And her brother is the other commander.” Scootaloo said.

“Wait...if they sent you...have you three...killed before?” Cherilee asked. Everyone went silent.

“Demons, of course. People, yes...but only because they killed our friends.” Scootaloo said lowly. The others stared at them.

“I'm no tactician but I'll try...our snipers are in place right?” Applejack asked, she had begun to use her 'Violet' voice even when not needing it so her orders were clearer and had a lower risk of being heard wrong.

“They are. Everythin's ready.” Mac said.

“Right. What did the scouts say about what their numbers are?” she asked.

“Besides thuh two Ursa they're all just Manticores an' Slicers. No fliers.” Mac said.

“Good, our fliers are kinda weak...wouldn't want them against any enemies without height advantage. I think with the Ursa I'll have to take one while the troops take the other. Most of our better fighters went to Canterlot. The fighting over there already started...apparently they're weak in the temples and snipers work great.” AJ explained.

“Alright, Ah'll get that out to thuh troops... I see 'em. Ready?” Mac said, looking at the horizon. AJ nodded.

“Alright let's get moving! Let's take the fight to them!” she yelled as she changed and charged, followed by her forces.

“Alright you big bastard. Yer goin' down.” AJ said as she ran towards one of the two Ursa. She slid her longsword out of her arm, damn she'd never get used to that feeling, and jumped. She smashed into it blade first and knocked it to the ground. She dragged the blade up, cutting it's chest open, but it swiped at her and hit her with a backhand. Regaining hr balance mid air, she landed on her feet and launched into the air again.

Hampered by it's wound, the Ursa couldn't swipe high enough to hit her. She shoved her blade into it's temple, but it flinched and she missed and instead sliced down it's cheek. She huffed and tried again, this time it took a swipe at her.

“Alrigh' you fucker! Die!” she growled as she shoved her blade into it's spine. She then grabbed her double barrel from the strap on her back and put it to the base of it's skull and fired both barrels. That got it. Now that he adrenaline rush was calming down she heard the radio chatter, apparently her troops were having trouble with the Ursa so the snipers were telling them to hold it in place. She watched as the volley rang out. Some shots missed and hit other demons, some hit but bounced off of it's thick skull. A few hit dead on though, going in one Temple and out the other. It fell to the ground, lifeless.

“Alright! Let's finish these bastards off!” AJ yelled. They turned away from the dead Ursa, only to be blinded by a brilliant burst of light in the direction of Canterlot.

“Hoo-ey! Someone pissed Twi off!” Applejack laughed as she charged at the distracted Demons.

“Pack members in Ponyville, there are Demons coming your way!” she suddenly heard in the radio.

“How many?” Applejack and Applebloom asked at the same time.

“Two Manticores and Two Slicers, can you three take that?” the voice asked.

“No problem.” Scootaloo said.

“We got some Demons nearby. Sweetie, post up in the window and cover us. You're better with that gun than you are those claws.” Scootaloo said, nodding her head at the Carbine on Sweetie's back. She nodded and opened the window facing where they could now make out movement.

“Where are you going?” Cherilee asked.

“To take out the demons.” Scootaloo replied.

“Ah don' like Fightin' them Manticores. You take 'em and Ah'll take the Slicers?” Applebloom offered as they exited the building.

“Got it.” Scootaloo said, tightening her gauntlets. She had an internal version, but the extra layer of metal helped a lot. Plus these had small spikes on the knuckles. Applebloom had a Rapier, apparently Granny Smith was a world class fencing champion in her days. She taught Mac and he taught her.

“Alright, let's do this.” Scootaloo said when they saw the demons. They weren't aware of their presence and were instead looking for anything to kill. They changed to their Nightstalker form and jumped to the rooftops. Flanking them, they waited until they were just in sight of the schoolhouse. Sweetie took a shot. It went straight through one of the Slicer's skulls. The second their heads turned the two above jumped down. The Slicer was fast and managed to block Applebloom's Rapier thrust, but the Manticores weren't so lucky. Scootaloo brought her spiked knuckles right into it's head. She had used a thrust form her wings to add that extra burst of speed. It's skull was fractured and shattered.

She looked up and jumped straight forward and over the Manticore lunging at her. She took her stance and waited. The beast lunged at her again. This time she did a back flip. When it was under her she halted her flip and landed on it's back. She started bashing on it's head, but it's tail lunged forward. She grabbed it, but when it bucked she lost her grip and her footing and was flung off. It roared as it lunged at it's downed opponent, but was halted as a bullet bounced off it's skull. It reared backwards and fell on it's back, writhing at the pain.

“Thanks Sweetie!” Scootaloo said over the radio and got to her feet. The Manticore had recovered somewhat and was now glaring at her. She wiped her lip to wipe some blood off that had splatter on her and she took her stance again. She focused as it lunged at her. Dash had taught her a trick to where she calmed herself enough things would appear a bit slower. It was working. She easily saw how to dodge to the left and duck under the claw to land an uppercut on it's gut. Then to spin around and uppercut it's jaw. It was Trivial then, to jumped up with a thrust of her wings and thrust back down for a vertical drop kick and smash it into the ground. As it got to it's feet again she could almost see where to hit to continue fracturing it's skull. Mundane it was to bash at it's head over and over again until it was nothing but a pulp.

“Whoa girl, calm it down.” Applebloom said.

Applebloom's fight had gone rather quickly. The Slicers were good for just that, Slicing. The Rapier could do it just fine, but was more for stabs and thrusts. She was able to easily parry it's slicing attacks or simply duck around them and land clean stabs at it. She finally managed to knock it to it's back. When that happened she simply thrust her blade into it's chin and into it's brain. She heard Sweetie take a shot and saw Scootaloo getting to her feet and watched as she proceeded to pull a badass pose and beat the crap out of the Manticore, finally bashing it's head in.

they walked back to the Schoolhouse, where they saw all of the kids and Cherilee at the windows, watching in horror and awe.

“Hey Diamond Tiara! Wanna know what Manticore brains look like?!” Scootaloo called, showing her spiked fists that still had said brains stuck on them. Diamond Tiara proceeded to faint.