Tartarus High

(A/N HOLY SHIT 9 PAGES this was too fun to write, I couldn't stop. if you get confused Chronologically close to the end, Twilight's fight ends and then skips back to the beginning for Celestia's part.)

“Where the hell do they find these kids?” Dash asked. They were all back in the school, but to pick up missions and they got a look at what everyone looked like ready for battle. It put the royal guard to shame.

“A lot of them are sons and daughters of special forces and other authority figures...others are found on the streets, too violent to put in a regular school...yet kind enough to be allowed in public. They're all orphans, so are you all correct?” Celestia explained. The group nodded.

“Hey...before we get this mission...there's something I want to ask...how come the Royal guard and special forces can't take care of what we're going to be doing?” Twilight asked, surprising everyone.

“the Royal guard is just a police force, average training. Your brother is a captain, if you were to ask him about it he'd tell you the same thing. They're simply not strong enough to do it for much longer. As for the special forces...they can only do so much. The Tartarus project, which is what the higher ups decided to call this little experiment, is basically taking high school students with advanced training and making them into a sort of elite force...the Tartarus Guard.” Celestia explained.

“How do you know all this?” Rarity asked.

“Being the only Angels in existence... the government likes to include us in their planning... we're the only reason this force is going towards the Tartarus incident instead of some other self-gain inspired ploy of theirs...” Luna said.

“If you ask me it kind of sounds like this 'Tartarus Incident' was planned.” Dash suddenly said. They all looked at her with confused looks.

“I mean come on...they just happen to name this thing the Tartarus project, the Tartarus guard...yet that thing only happened what two weeks ago? No matter who or what is working on it you can't get all of this done in two weeks' time...it's either planned or the biggest coincidence I've ever seen.” Dash said, leaning back onto a pillar.

“Whoa, since when were you all into conspiracy theories?” Spike asked.

“My mom was in a special government task force...they DID that kind of thing, though nothing as big as this...smells like the higher ups are cooking something up with us as the main ingredients...” Dash replied.

“Anyone else got any interest bloodlines?” Celestia asked.

“Mah Granny founded Ponyville.” Applejack said.

“One of my great great however many times grandmas wrestled a dragon and won!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“My Mother and Father were the government's go-to agents when it came to espionage, also my mother was a world-class dress maker.” Rarity answered.

“Um...I'm the last in the line of...um...the Shy Assassins...if anyone knows what that is.” Fluttershy said softly. Nobody did. She seemed happy about this.

“Well, it seems everyone's got some sort of fancy blood in them.” Emerald said.

“Not really, our dad was just an average royal guard. It's when they got assassinated, for reasons we still don't know, is when our brother stepped it up and taught us everything.” Spike retorted.

“I'm just a girl off the streets, Celestia hired me as a servant at first, why I don't know though.” Emerald said.

“I wouldn't leave a girl on the streets, and you looked very capable. When you showed interest in the Dojo I had her trained up.” Celestia said.

“Right, well...fancy parents, conspiracies and sad tales aside I didn't wake up early to get all setup to stand and talk. Shall we?” Dash said, pushing off of the wall.

“Only solo and pair missions available huh? Right, well...Tutor-Protege pairs sound good?” Celestia asked, Spike and Emerald being assistants they were left out- and so automatically paired as a squad-.

“Yeah.” everyone replied.

“Right...well Twilight, what do you feel more comfortable with...search and destroy? Support? Or search and rescue?” Celestia asked.

“Well...I'd rather have more than just us so I'd rather not do a search and destroy...my medical magic is shoddy at best so the rescue part of search and rescue I don't feel comfortable with...Support sound good?” Twilight replied.

“Fine by me.” Celestia said and they stepped into one of the three lines.

“We have three support missions available for your skill level, we have one in Trottingham supporting the Tear Platoon, Edinspur with the Eyeglass Platoon and one just outside of Canterlot for the Shining Platoon.” the woman giving out missions said when she recognized the two.

“We'll take the third one!” Twilight blurted out without hesitation.

“Here you are, report to the location and give this to the commanding officer there for your objectives.” she said, handing an info card.

“Why the last one? I agree, it's closer, but you seemed worried.” Celestia stated as they walked.

“Look at who the commanding officer is.” Twilight said, handing her the card.

“Shining Platoon Canterlot twenty-third Platoon, commanding officer Sining Armor...wait...isn't that-?” Celestia read.

“Yes, my Brother. I don't trust anyone else to be his support...” Twilight said.

“Oh Damn, I forgot...how good are your magic supplies?” Celestia asked.

“Enough to sustain an interdimensional rift for three days straight, why?” Twilight replied.

“...Wow...more than enough...because I forgot about transportation, Jetpack needs power.” Celestia said, leaping into the air on her angelic wings. Twilight followed quickly, causing the thrusters of the pack to go from a normal orange to her purple. Celestia put in an earpiece and Twilight did the same.

“Read me?” Celestia asked.

“loud and Clear.” Twilight replied.

“Good, let's hurry.” Celestia said and dashed off. Twilight followed without hesitation.

“Sir, there's a squad of that new guard here to lend us support.” Shining's second in command reported, entering the tent he was using as the HQ. They were currently behind a makeshift barricade about a mile away from Canterlot's east gate, there were Demon attacks every few hours and his en were getting tired, but the hostile numbers were low. They had reached a standstill.

“It's about time...bring them here, quickly...” Shining ordered. The man saluted and quickly left.

“I hate how they're using high school students as these new super soldiers.” Cadence said, she had arrived earlier with a supply shipment.

“I hear they're putting that drug in the food...I don't like it either, especially since Twilight and Spike are in Ponyville now...but right now we need them.” Shining sighed.

“Hopefully they're respectable...some of those people are just gang thugs that got good at shooting things...” Cadence said lowly.

“Hopefully.” Shining repeated.

“He's in there, go on in.” they heard from outside. When the flap opened he got up and froze. First of all, that was Celestia. Second, that was Twilight next to her. Thirdly, they looked like they could take on a dragon and not bat an eye.

“Celestia? Twilight? What are you doing here?” He asked.

“We're your support, when I heard the Shining Platoon I jumped on it.” Twilight answered, running up and hugging him.

“Is that the Modular rifle? I thought we scrapped it.” Shining asked, looking at the rifle on her back.

“I figured out what was wrong with the design, the old one was too bulky and heavy.” Twilight responded.

“Right...well...now that you're here we can advance.” Shining started and pulled out a map.

“The barricade is holding, but we're at a standstill...if I send my men to attack without me there to ward off ambushes then it would just be a slaughterhouse. If I do go with them then nothing is stopping the Demons from using their own magic against us...” Shining explained.

“They just have one small little camp...they're only ten strong now, but they're big and they take bullets like spitballs...we've figured out their chest and heads are heavily armored, but there are weak spots.” he continued, pulling out another rolled up scroll. It was a very detailed sketch of what apparently they were up against. It was about eight feet tall when on two legs, but a side note revealed they walked on four. It was almost Feline-like, but had a scorpion-like tail and stinger. It had what looked like thick bone around it's chest as well.

“My men started calling them Manticores.” Shining said. “Like I said, bullets only seemed to annoy them until you hit a vital area, but when my men started pulling swords and explosives they were more careful. My guess is that the natural body armor these things have got only protect against instant pinpoint force, like bullets, but for slicing and stabbing it's not too good. That stinger though...one of my Lieutenants got hit by one and it was like acid...the claws are dangerous too, but not so much.” Shining explained.

“Right...do you have any snipers?” Celestia asked.

“Five man squad of them, you need them?” he replied.

“Yes...here's the plan...” Celestia started.

“Hunter one in position.”

“Hunter Five, in position.”

“Hunters two and four, in position.”

“Hunter three, In position.”

“Tartarus One, in position.”

“Good. Tartarus one, begin when ready. Once the flash hits fire at will.” Celestia said into her headset as the snipers and Twilight sounded off.

“Roger.” the radio buzzed.

Twilight took aim with her sniper rifle, it was the highest Caliber she had and she had spent three minutes putting glyphs on the bullet she was now loading into her rifle. The Glyphs would make the bullet punch through anything and explode with a magical flash so strong the Manticores would be blind for minutes, if not permanently. The final glyph would stop the flash with a shroud of shadows around the area, stopping the effect before it hit friendlies.

Twilight pulled the trigger, the resounding boom caused the Manticores to snap their attention to where Twilight was about three hundred yards away, Celestia and the others about a hundred on the other side of the small demon camp. By the time the gunshot reached them the bullet was already In motion. It went straight through one's skull and hit the fire. The explosion not only blinded the group, but caused the red hot ashes to blast around and further disorient the beasts. Once the boom from the flash reached the Hunter squad they opened fire simultaneously, having picked targets already. One missed but the other four scored hits on the soft temples the beasts had. Once the volley hit, Twilight and Celestia teleported into the middle of them.

“One mag says they can't do it.” Two said.

“Five mags says they can.” Four retorted.

“Ten from the both of ya says they do it but one gets hurt.” One radioed in.

the creatures, almost completely blind, only now just noticed the two humans in their midst. relying on their other senses which, unfortunately for Twilight and Celestia, were very advanced.

With a menacing roar the five remaining charged at the same time. There was a resounding volley of gunshots heard just as one of the five suddenly found five holes in it's head, it fell to the ground as two claws and curved blades slid out of their holders as the Reaver Gauntlets barred their fangs. The claws and blades blocked the attacks from the remaining four Manticores as the two used a burst of magic to push the Manticores back.

“The fuck are those?”

“No idea, looks like these chicks really are some sorta special forces...”

“God damn it I'm gonna lose five mags.”

“Or ten.”

Twilight spun around, facing a single Manticore and, activating the jetpack, shot forward. She embedded her claws into the soft tissue of the neck, pinning the beast to the ground. Then she spun around the frantic jabs of the tail as she used the claws almost like a crowbar and rather brutally pried the beast's head clean off.

The tail was still thrashing and, even headless, the beast was trying to claw at her. She swiped at the tail with a curved blade and cut the stinger off, then proceeded to smash it through the beast's chest armor. It stopped thrashing and was still.

As she got to her feet a large mass smashed into her back, the other one she knocked back had literally tackled her. It sniffed at the dead on and gave a malicious roar in her direction. She wiped blood off of her face and squared up.

“the fuck?! Did she really just do that?”

“Yes she did...and now it looks like she's going to box or something...”

Twilight slid the claws and blades back in, she wasn't going to get far now that this beast was ready for her. With another roar, it charged her. She jumped, with a burst from her jetpack, did a half flip and a corkscrew so that she was now facing where the beast was heading, and landed on it's back. She proceeded to drive a magic infused fist into the back of it's head. It's chin hit the ground and that caused it to flip over, but since Twilight was on it's back it wasn't good for her.

Now pinned under the writhing beast she was being crushed and suffocating at the same time. It was on her back and she suddenly had an idea. With a burst of magic and an awkward snap of her fingers her jetpack blew it into the air a few inches and a levitation spell held it there. She quickly flipped around and gave it a two-foot kick, with the now low gravity it had it went high into the air. It stayed there, writhing and screaming. She snapped her fingers and put her finger up, as if telling someone 'just a moment'. Then she quickly pointed down and the beast came with it. It landed on it's head and only twitched slightly, but otherwise didn't move.

“...Holy Shit...” was all the radio read from five different voices.

Panting, Twilight stepped towards the barely conscious beast as her claws slowly slid out. There was suddenly another volley of five shots, but she ignored it. She kicked it to roll it over and gave it a good look, it's skull was shattered now and only one eye was undamaged. But that one eye glared at her as it gave her a menacing, but weak, growl. Twilight spit to the side and put a claw up to put the beast down, but it suddenly blasted into motion.

Tackling her again, it made sure to keep her pinned this time. It started scratching wildly at her body, her arms held in front of her face. It scratched deep gouges on her arms where the armor was light and scraped deep grooves where it's claws didn't puncture. Thinking quickly, when it reached back to swipe once more she made to put magic laced claws through it's chest and into it's heart, but she forgot about one thing. The tail. It stabbed into her side and it hurt more than anything she had ever felt.

Well, that is until the pain made her claws falter and the best clawed her face. Both claws made full runs over it before a volley of sniper fire impacted it's head and stopped it. As it fell over sideways, she rolled over and got to her knees, holding her side. Muttering the name of a long and complicated spell and making a glyph in the ground with her own blood she snapped her fingers and a low flash appeared.

She hissed in pain and yelped as the wound on her side began to close and the poison leaked out, but the spell was rapidly draining her magic. The wounds on her face, which were the next wounds to begin healing, managed to just barely stop bleeding and eliminate infection before the spell sputtered out. She decided against casting it again, it'd leave her barely conscious and that wouldn't be worth it. Getting back to her knees from where she had collapsed again, she looked around to see Celestia pulling her curved blade out of the side of the last Manticore. She realized, however, she couldn't see out of her right eye, the one that took the hit. Looking at the stream nearby as Celestia rushed over, she saw she had for gashes going from brow to chin and three from her brow, crossing the top of the first four, and then crossing the bridge of her nose. Her eye was in tatters.

Casting a lesser healing spell she channeled her magic into her eye. Slowly she was able to see again, but it was weird...but she was so damn tired she couldn't pinpoint it.

“...She's dead...”

“No she's not, Manticore sting won't kill! Line up your shots now god damn it!” there was the volley.

“Shit man, you think she'll be alright?”

“Barely...wait...what's she doing...”

“She's a Mage, apparently pretty damn good one...look...”

“Ah, that'll scar pretty damn bad...that eye looks dead now though.”

Celestia had gone straight for the first one once she knocked the two Manticores back. She quickly slid her curved blades forward as she reached the beast and stuck them right where the ribs started. Dragging them forward, the blades magically sharpened, she gouged two jagged tracks up it's chest until she reached the protective bone armor it had. She twisted the blades so the flat side was up now and proceeded to pry the chest off. She then slid her claws out and stabbed it's heart before it even had a chance to react.

What she didn't see, however, was that the other had regained it's footing quickly and was lunging at her.

“Shit beast on one! Open fire!” the volley sounded. The bullets all bounced off of it's skull, but it had knocked it aside enough for it to miss Celestia completely.

Celestia rolled out of the way, flashing a smile towards where one of the snipers were and squared up to the beast. When she charged it, it expertly flicked it's tail and knocked her blades out of the way. It lunged at her again now, but she used her curved blades to hold it's claws at bay. As it's it's tail whipped at her, she made a huge risk. She slid her blades back in, kicking the beast a bit to make it lose it's balance, and then grabbed the tail. She then flung it over her shoulder and twisted it off.

“Did I just see her do what I think I just saw her do?”

“Three mags says she does what Two did and tosses it into the air.”

“Add another one and instead of tossing she uses those wings of hers for it.”

“Deal”

the downed beast was lying on it's back, winded and without a tail, when Celestia stuck her curved blades under it's ribs like she had the first one. It realized what she was trying to do and swiped at her. Dodging to the side, she realized that trick wouldn't work again, so she improvised. She leapt into the air, taking the beast with her, and fanned her wings out. With a mighty thrust of those angelic appendages she soared into the air. Just as her speed slowed she did a half flip and flung the beast back towards the ground and, with another mighty thrust, rocketed down after it.

“Fuck you five”

Meeting it about thirty feet from the ground, Celestia flipped around so her feet were on it's armored chest and did an awkward upwards thrust with her wings, sending them towards the ground even faster. The Beast's chest shattered, but it was still kicking. It wheezed and coughed blood as it tiredly swiped at her as it shakily got to it's feet, Celestia having done a rather cliché back flip off of it's chest.

“This is your fault for leaving your cage Beast.” Celestia said as she stepped up to it. She caught it's claws with her gauntleted hand and sighed as she flipped a curved blade forward and thrust it into it's side, piercing it's heart and twisting. As she did this she looked over at Twilight to see her casting a Healing Glyph. With a gasp, she ran over to her as she shakily made her way to the stream that had not yet been tainted with blood.

“She seemed almost...sad to kill it...”

“These things aren't supposed to be here in Equestria. They're like the citizens of Tartarus almost, but they got out...now we have to put them down...they're almost like stray dogs that go mad.”

“Huh...well...let's pack up and get down there to see if we can help.”

“Roger”

“Roger”

“Got it.”

“Fine...”

“Just because you lost almost Fifteen mags doesn't mean you have to be resentful.”

“Dude you know how expensive those are...it'll take weeks to get that back...”

“Twilight are you alright?!”

“Y-yeah...just tired now...they all down?” Twilight replied, exhaustion very clear in her voice.

“Yes, it's alright...you can sleep now.” Celestia replied.

“Oh thank god...” she muttered as she fell to her knees and fell over. Celestia yelped as she caught her before she hit the ground, but couldn't help but smile at how peaceful the girl looked. Then she frowned at the wounds on her face.

“We saw her use some kind of healing spell, can't you do that to finish the job?” one of the Hunter units asked, kneeling down next to them as they all arrived.

“No, if I try I could cause some major damage...I don't know where her magic left off and I don't know what glyph she used.” Celestia said sadly.

“She wrote it with her blood, it's over there.” One said, pointing to the spot. Celestia picked up Twilight bridal style and walked over. It was still in perfect condition, but Celestia gasped in disbelief when she saw it. It was a six pointed star with a different glyph at each point.

“It's...it's not just written in blood...it's an actual blood glyph...and it's made up on the spot...it's not even designed like other ones I've ever seen...I have no idea how it would work...” Celestia said, disbelief in her voice.

“Just made up on the spot? How is that even possible?” Two asked.

“She wrote two volumes of the Glyph Dictionary and helped with most of the others...i wouldn't put it by her...are any of you Mages proficient enough to teleport? I will supply the magic, I just can't concentrate enough...” Celestia asked.

“I'm no Mage, but I studied the arcane enough to at least start the spell.” One said.

“Right, just start and I'll supply the magic.” Celestia said. He nodded and focused.

“Looks like that wasn't a waste of time eh?” he said to the others, who gave a few chuckles, before the spell had accumulated enough power to work right and they were gone in a flash of light.