12
“I’d help out with my magic but this lily pad is about all I can do safely.” Twilight grumbled as the Ghosts arrived first.

“I’ll go and take care of the Spectres.” Starswirl said, taking the form of an Ursa and charging off down where they originally came from.

“Alright, formation!” Blue Steel ordered. Everyone raised their shields and prepared their spear gauntlets as they entered a semi-circle formation. One of the ghosts smashed into the ground, apparently out of steam for the wings, while two of them landed and the last two remained in the air.

“Dash, Fluttershy, take out the ones in the air.” Blue Steel ordered. They nodded and used the hands of their friends to get some air before activating their wings. Dash air tackled one of the Ghosts into a nearby building while Fluttershy waited for her opponent to attack. When it did, she simply dodged it and stabbed at it while it passed her.

Meanwhile, the Semi-circle had now become a full circle around the three on the ground. They would lash out at their captors, but the shields were reinforced so they held up perfectly. When the two with steam remaining tried to take to the air, the group had ruptured their gas tanks. Slowly but surely the circle became smaller and smaller. When there was no more room for the creatures to escape the spears they were quickly dispatched.

“I’d never thought of that, trapping them in an all around pincer attack.” Twilight said.

“I thought it was rather impressive.” Starswirl said, returning in his humanoid form.

“I’m glad you guys trained up more.” Twilight said with a smile.

“We used the routine that’s normally used to take down a Manticore, figured these things are kinda like small versions of them.” Blue Steel said.

“That was rather genius” Starswirl commended.

“It was, I would have come up with something new but using something you already know is much easier.” Twilight said.

“It was Captain Armor’s idea.” Blue shrugged.

“Well I’ve extended the range of the grid, there isn’t anything nearby. It’s been exactly two hours, that means 34 more to go.” Starswirl said.

“This is going to be the longest hours of my life...” Twilight grumbled.
---
“Alright, either they were all in the lake and in that tiny strike force or all of them that’s left in the city don’t even know that we’re here.” Twilight said weakly as she took her hands from the water after the full 36 hours was up. There had been another attack twelve hours in consisting of a few spectres and over ten Ghasts, but they were dispatched by the group and starswirl again.

“Well it’s not like they’re reproducing, we’ve killed hundreds of them since the accident happened, not to mention the ones that die from them killing themselves off. Maybe there’s just not so many in the city anymore.” Starswirl suggested.

“Not quite, but it’s getting there.” Celestia’s voice said from behind them. They turned to see her and a small group of elite guards wearing gas masks.

“You can go ahead and take those off for a bit, I’ve got a barrier around this area.” Twilight said with a smile before tiredly walking up to the Princess and hugging her.

“Are you alright?” Celestia asked.

“I was pumping blood out of my body for 36 hours straight, I’m exhausted.” Twilight said with a weak smile.

“I understand, I was worried it was something else. I remember where your home is, shall we head there? I’ve brought necessities.” Celestia said, showing the magically sealed bags her guards were carrying.

“Great, did you bring extra sleeping bags or something? We’ve already got six people sharing and Fluttershy with me.” Twilight asked.

“We did, hopefully nothing I should be jealous of right?” Celestia said with a smirk.

“Oh you know, just the usual when i get in bed with a girl.” Twilight giggled.

“U-um what’s that s-supposed to mean?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“It was a joke Flutters, and a bad one at that.” Spike said.

“Oh... ok...” Fluttershy sighed in relief.

“Let’s go, If we stay any longer I think I might pass out...” Twilight grumbled, already half asleep. Celestia giggled and picked the woman up bridal style and extended her wings.

“I’ll catch back up with you guys, I just want to make sure she gets home.” Celestia said, looking at the dozing girl with a slight grin.

“Stay with her, we can handle ourselves.” Blue Steel said.

“I’ll guide them back, fret not my friend.” Starswirl said.

“Alright, if you insist.” Celestia said and shot into the air.
---
“It’s time.” Celestia said two days later. Celestia had left Canterlot the day before after making sure everyone was fine to return to the outpost and collect and prepare the large strike force that would clear Canterlot when the barrier turned blue. She was watching said barrier when it did just that.

“The troops are all ready. They have all been outfitted with Twilight’s technology, though we couldn’t figure out how she got her shield to work so we just outfitted our standard riot shields with gems similarly.” Luna said.

“Good, I want the least amount of casualties as possible, preferably no deaths at all... Twilight made some things for me, I’ll be right out after I put it all on and we’ll take back our city.” Celestia said as she turned towards an elegant set of armor similar to Twilight’s, but much more protective in terms of coverage and much prettier in terms of looks.

“It covers a lot more than her own does.” Luna commented.

“She needs to be more mobile and flexible to survive how she has, We need more protection.” Celestia said as she took the chestplate down.

“I see. I’ll leave you to it then.” Luna said.

“She made a set for you too of course, it’s in your room.” Celestia said with a smirk. Luna grinned and walked out of the room.
---
“Um, I might be seeing things... But is that a giant purple dragon?” One of the soldiers asked. The platoon was at the barrier, waiting for Celestia to give the command.

“Yes it is, and that’s the signal.” Celestia said, creating a large doorway in the barrier and giving the commander the order to charge.

“The leader of a force like this should probably be in the front lines so that her girlfriend doesn’t think she’s forgotten.” Luna said when Celestia waited back as the troops quickly entered the barrier.

“Normally I’d have to agree with you sister, but I have to maintain this entrance until everyone is through.” Celestia said with a wink.

“Fair enough, see you on the other side.” Luna said, brandishing a long glaive before following the troops in. When everyone who was in the strike force was through, Celestia herself dashed through as the entrance closed.
---
“Looks like all that training the others were telling me about actually paid off.” Twilight said from her spot watching Celestia and a group of five troops take on ten ghasts.

“All thanks to you, your tips and your video logs telling us how to fight them effectively.” Celestia said, sliding her large claymore into it’s scabbard strapped to her back before jumping up to the rooftop she was on.

“I didn’t know you could use a Claymore.” Twilight said with a giggle.

“It’s an ancient skill. Men, I expect you not to gawk if you can help it.” Celestia said before cupping Twilight’s face in her hands and planting a large kiss on the girl’s lips. Needless to say the expectations weren’t met and the five men’s jaws dropped to the ground.

“Now there’s a good reason to freak out your guards again.” Twilight giggled when they separated.

“Uh... Princess?” One of the guards started.

“Yes we’re dating, and no I don’t care what the politicians and nobility say.” Celestia said. The guard shut his mouth quickly.

“Back to business much better suited to the presence of said guards, I’ve noticed that the numbers are much lower than we thought. We were expecting something close to a 1:10 ratio when it came to our forces and theirs, but it’s only about 1:3.” Celestia said.

“We sealed the barrier and the only people that have entered and/or exited the barrier are either dead now or accounted for. It’s not like they spawn or reproduce, they have limited numbers. I’ve been exterminating them since I got my arm replaced and with Starswirl’s help we can kill a lot more of them.” Twilight explained.

“That makes sense. Canterlot’s population before the incident was around 90,000. We got over half of them out, an estimated 55,000. That would still leave up to 35,000 of these creatures though and I don’t think that many have been killed.” One of the guards said.

“only a small percentage were turned, I don’t know the numbers but in my experiments I actually found a semi-reliable percentage of about 20% give or take. That means about 7,000 became Ghasts, Ghosts and Spectres. There were also some animal mutations but I stopped seeing them after that first log. I know we didn’t kill nearly that many, but they’re like wild animals without a brain that just want to kill. When there’s nothing to kill or eat they turn on each other.” Twilight explained.

“So they’ve killed a good amount of each other off...” One of the guards rationalized.

“Exactly. My guess is that out of those 7,000, only about 2,000 were killed by myself, other humans and the city itself. It is a dangerous place.” Twilight said.

“So 2,000 in two months. That should be like a record or something.” One of the guards said.

“Records are just statistics used to boost egos and shove what you did in people’s faces. I don’t know about you, but I’m already fucked up enough as it is. Celebrating a record of a very high body count probably wouldn’t help me too much.” Twilight said lowly.

“Good point.” Celestia said. Before any more chatting could be done, there was a slight static noise and Twilight put a hand to an earpiece that was previously obscured by her hood.

“Right... Yeah... Shit, bring them to the house and call Flutters. Uh-huh... Alright, be right there.” Twilight said with short pauses.

“One of your teams were injured so they’re receiving medical attention at my house. We need to meet up with Dash and Spitfire to take out a few Spectres, Starswirl is busy chasing down a flock of Ghosts. Catch.” Twilight said quickly, finishing by tossing an earpiece to Celestia. She put it in and made sure it was working and they dashed off towards where Twilight told them Dash and Spitfire was.
---
“About damn time.” Dash said, holding a gash on her arm.

“It got through your dampening gem?” Twilight asked.

“There are four of them, there was too much unstable energy for two gems to keep in check at once.” Spitfire said.

“Right. If you’re alright to still fight then I need you two to go back in there and keep them still.” Twilight said as she used purple magic laced fingers to pluck the cracked green gems from their places in their armor, repairing them and placing them back.

“Fine, the gems lasted about fifteen seconds, after twelve we’re breaking off.” Spitfire said.

“I only need seven.” Twilight said as she seemed to punch the air as the two women charged around the corner. When Twilight punched the air, the bottom of left the forearm snapped forward. If the shield was activated then her arm would be practically nothing now.

The bottom of the forearm created a familiar curve. She connected the points of the two curves with magic and created a large arrow out of magic and stepped around the corner as well. This was all done in just under the seven seconds promised.

Dash and Spitfire, who were on the other side of the four Spectres, nodded and jumped into the air and landed on nearby rooftops with assistance from their wings. Twilight, now with clear targets, pulled the magic string back and let loose the large arrow. It pinned one of them to the wall by it’s head, exploded and sent long sharp spikes of solidified magic around like a splitter bomb.

The ending result looked like a crystallized alleyway. She allowed the power to return to her with the new energy form the now dead Spectres and retracted the bow.

“I’ve got it bandaged up now and it’s stopped bleeding so I’m good to keep going.” Dash said when Twilight hopped up to check on her.

“Alright, if you start getting dizzy call me again and I’ll help you back to the house.” Twilight said.

“Got it. Starswirl radioed in by the way if you didn’t hear it.” Dash replied.

“I heard, go on. He needs some help with those ghosts and the two fastest fliers in Equestria could be some great help.” Twilight said with a smile. The two nodded and took off.

“By the way Twilight, I didn’t know the remaining Wonderbolts were involved in this.” Celestia said.

“Apparently Spitfire is an old friend of Dash’s and she called in a few favors. The Wonderbolts leapt at the chance to avenge their fallen friends.” Twilight said.

“I see.” Celestia said.

“Hey Twi! looks like the entire northeastern section near the house is completely cleared, go do your thing. I’m clearing all the guards and stuff now.” Spike’s voice came over the radio.

“What are you going to do?” Celestia asked.

“I’ve modified the pumps in my left arm to replicate your antitoxin and I’ve modified it so that it neutralizes normal acid as well.” Twilight said, putting her left arm up and showing the ‘veins’ in it. Instead of their normal slightly glowing red they sported a color like silver mercury.

“I’m going to create a cloud of it over the entirely cleared sector. It turns the normal acid into water and neutralizes the harmful effects of my blood like the original did. You should head over to the lake and start the process to clean the river.” Twilight said as her wings extended.

“Why did you clear the guards?” Celestia asked.

“Because, while it may turn acid into water and act as the antitoxin... I’ve found that it dissolves dead organic material. Since the skin has a lot of dead or dying cells on it... Well let’s just say if you’re not me it burns.” Twilight said.

“How do you know that?” One of the guards asked.

“Spike inhaled a bit of the gas on accident and I tried injecting it into him. It reverses the process if it isn’t too far, but it got on his skin and I had to magically regrow a few layers of it.” Twilight said before taking off.

“Wait so that stuff is like a cure?” Anothr guard asked.

“I think it would be very dangerous to use as such, but if the alternative is turning into a ghast or having your insides melted it would be a much better alternative... I’ll speak to her when she’s not so busy, for now let’s regroup with some of the others.” Celestia said.