Tartarus High

(A/N well here be spike and emerald. they may seem very overpowered in this one but they're fighting trees...as Dracomages. they are literally living flamethrowers. Enjoy! -Dark)

“What do you want to do?” Spike asked Emerald as they tried to decide what kind of mission to take.

“Well I'm a trained medic so we could go support or search and rescue.” Emerald pondered.

“I'm fine with whatever, I don't think we should be too picky when it comes to people's lives.” Spike said.

“Hm...good point. Alright let's do search and rescue.” Emerald said, getting into one of the lines.

“We've only got a few Everfree Forest missions right now, sound good?” the Man asked.

“I actually know a good part of the forest, we'll take it.” Emerald said.

“Right, so exactly where are we going?” Spike asked.

“Apparently a Tribal Alchemist named Zecora, who lives in the Everfree, was reported missing and her house looked like it was ransacked. Let's go.” Emerald said as they left the building. She cupped her hands close to her mouth and breathed and a ball of fire sparked to life in it as Spike did the same with his green flames. They simultaneously spread both hands wide as if to imitate wings, the fire split and followed and formed what looked like molten dragon wings. They grinned at each other and jumped into the air. Their jetpacks activated and they were sent whizzing off in the direction of the everfree.

“What's that?” a medic asked when what sounded like fighter jets flew near and landed.

“Dracomages! They sent Dracomages?!” a scout yelped, running over.

“You the Tartarus Guards that were sent to help us?” the commander asked.

“Yeah.” Spike replied.

“Alright. Are either of you expert trackers?” he asked.

“Yeah.” they both replied. Emerald was as close as a ninja you could get when you think about it, and Spike has been forced to do detective work for Twilight on so many occasions, even if it was just for a lost book, he was up there as well.

“Right, mainly our trackers and medics just need protection...the Timber wolves and Ents are feuding again and the Ents weren't friendly to begin with.” he explained.

“Right, we'll point your guys in the right direction if we find anything as well.” Spike said. The commander nodded.

“This is Eyes three, everyone report in.”

“Eyes one, calling in.”

“Eyes two four anf Five, in.”

“Eyes six, in.”

“Medics three through five, in.”

“Medic one, in.”

“Medic two, in.”

“Drake one and two, in.”

“Good, you all know what to do.”

The radio buzzed as everyone made sure their equipment worked. Every ten minutes they were to say something over the radio just to make sure they were still there, the forest was a dangerous place. It was also dense, Spike and Emerald were each leading a group of medics while the scouts were more spread out, they were forced to use their Katana as Machete eventually.

“Spike wait!” Emerald yelped when Spike went to hack as a wall of vines. Spike froze instantly and stood stock-still. Emerald pushed some of the vines aside and picked up what looked like shattered glass.

“Alchemy Flask, Any Eyes near our position?” she started, calling in the radio.

“Uh, I am.” One radioed.

“Found something.” Emerald said and continued looking around. She had spike hack away the vines in sections after she had checked under and through them as Eyes One dropped from a nearby tree. Emerald found two more flasks, one covered in what looked like blood.

“What do you make of these?” Emerald asked. Two of them were shattered, but the one with the red liquid all over it was intact.

“That's definitely an Alchemy flask...but that's not blood, blood tends to dry brown...here.” One said, asking for it. Emerald handed it to him and it burned him, he quickly dropped it.

“Fuck...” he cursed.

“It must be liquid fire then, Dracomages are immune to it's effects...it's a type of acid that's often used as a solvent or sometimes chemical grenades...” Emerald said. She then licked the dried liquid and instantly spit it out, coughing in disgust.

“Oh yeah, that's a chem grenade.” she sputtered. “There's blood and gunpowder in that. If this was Zecora's, then she used it to defend herself.” Emerald said. With a mighty swing of her Katana, she cut down the rest of the vines and found what looked like a makeshift camp.

“Jackpot.” she said.

“All Eyes, spread out from my position and look for anything that could be a trail.” One radioed in and left himself.

“AH! FUUUUCK!” one of the eyes screamed over the radio.

“What?! What is it?!”

“GIANT FUCKING SPIDER!” you could almost hear the facepalm from the other members.

“Riiiiight...” One grumbled.

“Shh! sh...I hear something outside the camp.” Spike whispered into the radio, the medics and Emerald all dropped low with him. There was a low creaking noise. It was far away at first, but soon it got closer. It started coming from all around now.

“You hack and slash at our children. You dare defile our bodies.” a slow grumbling voice creaked from the treeline as the trees literally walked into the clearing.

“ents... We do not mean to harm any of you or your home, but one of our own has gone missing here and she is very important to us, please allow us safe passage.” Emerald said.

“The Witch with burning liquid? Friends of hers are dead...” it growled as many more entered the clearing. They sported ghastly faces and branch-like arms and hands. They looked sharp enough to rip through flesh like butter.

“Please do not attack! We will defend ourselves and we don't want to burn down the forest!” Spike yelled.

“People cannot burn without fire...you have no fire.” one of them growled, taking a swipe at him. Spike dodged to the side and grabbed it's arm. Copping his hand to make an 'O' and blowing through it, he created a sort of flamethrower that engulfed the creature's arm in flame. It's low grumbling wail grated against his ears, but he hacked the arm off at the shoulder before it reached it's body.

“we WILL burn you if you do not leave.” Spike growled.

“You can't burn us all...” another said and, with surprising speed, lunged at Emerald. She drew her Katana and with a flame laced slash she hacked both arms off and follower through with a horizontal slash, cutting it into three pieces. She then used the flamethrower technique Spike did and turned it's body to ashes.

“Try us.” Emerald growled. With a mighty, grumbling roar the group charged forward. They drew their rifles and began firing. Each bullet was laced with their own magic, the friction of the bullets hitting the wood of the Ents would cause the magic to ignite and explode. It was magical incendiary ammunition and it pushed them back into the tree line. They quickly cupped their mouths and inhaled, causing the fires to go out.

“Go! Come on!” they yelled as they ran towards the medics. They didn't want them to come back in greater numbers.

the battle with the ents had been an hour ago and they were being tailed. They had met up with the others of Eyes squad. They knew their followers weren't ents, too quick, fast and silent. When one made the mistake of getting close, Spike used a blast of his pack to rocket towards it and tackle it. Sitting on top of it with a Katana on it's neck, he found a Timberwolf. It raised it's arm slowly and made a symbol with his hand. 'Friendly'. So it knew Equestrian Military hand signals. Spike withdrew his blade and let the beast up, it was quite large.

“We watched you fight walking trees. They new to this place. Evil things. They kill our dens, help us.” a larger wolf with branches sticking out of it's back said, approaching the group.

“Why should we help you?” Eyes three asked.

“You help us, we help you. Our goals are the same. Saw walking trees attack potion woman at home...then take from escaped camp.” it replied.

“So what you're saying is that we need to find where they are and attack and you'll help us?” Spike asked.

“Know where they are...not strong enough, pack scattered. You have fire. Fire makes us win.” it replied.

“Won't you burn too though?” Emerald asked.

“Potion Woman is friend of us, gives us potions. One makes fire cold for us.” the wolf said.

“So it's an elixir that makes fire not burn you?” Emerald ask. It nodded. “Alright...are they close?” she continued. It nodded again and motioned for them to follow.

“I don't trust these things.”

“Why not?”

“They're ents, just wolf-looking.”

“You're a thick moron four...the Timber wolves have always been friendly and have been around since Canterlot was founded. Ents came from Tartarus, I'd trust my life to these guys sooner than I would half of our military.”

“True that.”

Spike chose to ignore most of the radio chatter, it was just that. Chatter. When they came across a large clearing they all stopped. In the middle was what could be described as a large camp, but it was trees with faces scattered around a slightly larger one. The slightly larger one had a darker skinned woman strung up. She was cut up and bruised, but she still glared at the trees with such fury Spike was surprised they didn't combust.

“Right...spike, you know much stronger fire spells than me, you give the entire thing the biggest and strongest blast you can. I'll focus my spell on protecting Zecora. Once you give the signal, stop the fire and then it's the Wolves' turn. Once he gives the signal, you all clear out what the fire didn't get. I'll dash for Zecora and bring her back here to the medics. Eyes squad, you make sure they don't get close to here. We've given you incendiary ammunition, use it wisely.” Emerald said.

“You're quite the tactician.” One said.

“One of us has to be.” Spike shrugged as he gathered his power. He cupped his hands together, as if he was holding a small bead inside. When his hand started to glow he slowly expanded his hands, a compacted ball of fire, looking like the sun, slowly formed and expanded with it. The green tint was very strange looking, coming out nearly black. Once it was about as big as his head he snapped his hands back together to make an oval with both hands, inhaled long and deep, and blew with all his might.

Throughout the camp the Ents heard the roar of a dragon the size of a mountain. It wasn't flame being spewed at them as if from the maws of a dragon though. It was magma. Zecora's eyes widened and she cringed as a large blast went straight for her, but it hit the tree holding her and it did not burn. It felt rather like pudding if you think about it.

She fell from the dead tree's grasp and landed on her hands and knees in the strangely cold magma, but she saw it incinerate everything else. She was surprised again when the spew stopped and she saw a boy was the source of it. He fell backwards and panted heavily after it. She was even more surprised when a small pack of Timber wolves quickly and keenly swept through the molten area as if the magma were puddles of water.

“Hey there.” a girl said, suddenly appearing next to her and picking her up. She quickly ran over back to the treeline, where a group of trackers and medics were waiting. The girl put her down, turned around and made an oval with her hands. Instead of 'roaring' like spike had, she simply blew slightly. The magma quickly cooled off and the fires went out. The Timber wolves were scattered around, some holding blackened branched in their jaws or finishing of a surviving Ent.

“This place will be their memorial...but new trees will grow. We thank you, Fire Mages.” the Pack Leader said, bowing slightly as his pack did the same.

“Was that all the Ents in the forest?” Emerald asked.

“No, but now they are scattered and easy to hunt. Is Potion Woman ok?”

“She's unconscious now, but the medics are taking care of her.” Spike said between pants, he was still winded.

“I had no idea you could do that Spike. I was expecting a really powerful flamethrower...not a volcano.” Emerald said with a grin.

“I combined the Dragon's Roar with Volcanic Maw......Dragon's Maw? I dunno.” Spike said, getting to his feet.

“Well it was impressive. Let's get back to the hut to get Zecora all settled back in and then head back.” Emerald said.

“Right.” Spike said as the Medics pulled out a stretcher for the Woman.