Fast Cloud entered his house with a growl, extending his wing to turn on the light, only to see that it was useless.
"One day I'll kill the landlady, I don't know how many times I've told her to change the fucking light bulb" he growled as he headed for the kitchen, trying to get his bearings in the dark.
He was a pegasus with yellowish fur and a red mane, carrying quite large saddlebags, which he threw on the table. He had had a horrible day, nopony had wanted to buy his merchandise, or drugs, or weapons, all because of that stupid Batmane. Fast still believed that the bat was an invention of the princesses to control criminals, he couldn't believe that there really was a pony that dressed as a bat and attacked criminals.
He reached his fridge and opened it, sighing with relief that it was still working and shining his light into the room, peering inside for something to drink. He settled on a can of beer, opening it with the tip of his wing and taking a sip. With satisfaction, he closed the fridge and started to try to find his room, but something grabbed him by the neck and threw him onto the table, knocking it to the floor in the process. Fast grunted in pain as he tried to compose himself, but the pony that threw him spun him around and forced him to face the ceiling, laying his hoof on his chest. Opening his eyes to glare at the pony in charge, his heart skipped a beat and his mouth opened slightly in surprise, there was what he considered a myth, Batmane.
"WHERE'S THE PENGUIN?!"
Fast felt fear begin to wash over him, but as intimidating as the bat was, there was somepony, rather, somebird, that scared him far more.
"I don't know anything! Okay?! Go ask at the zoo, maybe they'll give you answers!"
Batmane smashed his free hoof onto his right wing, causing him to yelp in pain.
"I can't feel pain... but I know what it is... and I love to share it with scum like you... And if you don't tell me what I want to know... I'll show you what real pain is..."
"Fuck you! What are you going to do to me, huh?! Guys like you are too nice, you can be all the fear in the world but I know you'll never...! ARGHHHHHHH!"
Fast was interrupted as a magical aura wrapped around the tip of his wing and he shot up, but since the hoof was still firmly in place, he only ended up breaking it. Batmane changed his hoof and prepared to do the same on the other wing.
"Wrong answer. You better think about it, I have all night, but... do you have that many bones?"
"I don't know who the penguin is! I swear! I'm an independent salespony!"
"I've seen your criminal file, the weapons you sell are hard to come by without contacts. Who's the Penguin?"
Fast fell silent, biting his tongue, earning Batmane to break his other wing.
"Talks!"
"Iceberg Lounge, he owns that place! Please, I don't know anything else!"
Batmane was silent for a while before loosening his grip on the pegasus's chest.
"If you lie to me, I'll go back to finish the job."
Batmane quickly walked away, leaving Fast alone. Before long, the lights came on, but the pegasus barely registered, he was too busy writhing in pain to do anything.
Oswald Cobblepot entered his club, the Iceberg Lounge, in a bit of a rage, followed by his two pony bodyguards, a unicorn and an earth pony. Unlike his workers or the majority of the population of Canterlot, he was a griffin, a rather short and obese one for his species, black except for the chest and belly area, and to top it off, he couldn't fly. All this, were the triggers so that from his childhood they called him Penguin. Although in his country of origin it had been an insult, and in his first years in Equestria as well, but when he began to make a name for himself, it became a title that inspired respect in others. Further highlighting, he always dressed in a black tuxedo suit, made by Canterlot's most famous designers, and carried an umbrella with him wherever he went.
Now, despite the fact that things were going relatively well for him, he was having a hard time in business, at least in the illegal ones. When Falcone and most of his mob ended up behind bars thanks to that Batmane, the Penguin knew it was his golden opportunity to go from being just the richest drug dealer in Canterlot to becoming the new king of crime, but he had to earn it. And while that was going on, he was having a hard time getting the drug shipments from him.
Although he bragged about being able to get just about anything, he had to admit that it was Falcone who controlled the drug business, so Oswald had to find a way to gain the trust of the dealers who used to sell to the former Mafia boss. Luckily, the arms sale was going on smoothly, but that bat was scaring his clientele away, so he would have to figure out what to do. But what pissed him off was the disappearance of one of his weapons and two of his goons that same day. If he didn't get answers by midnight, he would send somepony after them.
The Penguin entered the main room of his club, closed that day to the public and open to his most faithful and hardworking followers, who were entitled to a night in the Iceberg Lounge totally free and for themselves. There were plenty of tables where you could have a quiet lunch or dinner, where a few ponies were already sitting, placed in front of a stage where the most beautiful mares and griffin females sang and danced from time to time in exchange for a living wage and protection, and Given what Princess Twilight had accomplished with other races, Oswald was impatient to win contracts with females from other species.
To one side, there was a bar with the best drinks in the country, although it was a pity that he had not obtained that contract with the Apple family, and since an element of harmony belonged to that family, he decided not to use his most forceful methods. On the other side of the room, there were several pool tables and poker tables, where several of his henchpony were already.
The Penguin moved across the room, passing under a large circular window in the ceiling that afforded a view of the night sky, and sat down in his favorite chair, which almost resembled a throne, and was at a good distance and with a good view of the stage, where there was a unicorn mare singing and two pegasus mares dancing sensually behind. Oswald sat down, propped his umbrella against one of the armrests, and snapped his fingers. Instantly, his unicorn's bodyguard took a cigar from his jacket and placed it in his beak, lighting it with a match. The griffin took a long drag before expelling smoke, thinking of the customer who had stolen from it. Nopony stole from Penguin and got away with it.
Oswald tried to relax as he watched the three beautiful mares, but a noise behind him caught his attention, it sounded like breaking glass. He turned around just in time for the sound to grow even louder and a shower of glass from the remains of the window fell to the ground accompanied by what looked like a giant bat. When the figure landed, the Penguin found himself face to face with Batmane, who stared at him. The griffin looked at him confused, how had he passed his guards without them noticing? His gaze fixed on his two bodyguards, who were motionless and staring wide-eyed at the intruder.
"What the hell are you waiting for? An invitation? Get him out of here!"
That launched the two bodyguards, who advanced on Batmane, drawing his pistols to fire. But the bat stepped forward, throwing its batarangs with precision and tossing the weapons away, in the case of the earth pony, eliciting a whimper of pain from it. The hooded pony approached them, who, with a war cry, launched into combat, but were quickly reduced and with little effort. The Penguin watched the scene furiously as he walked away from his seat, grabbing his umbrella and pointing it in the direction of the masked pony, who was already approaching him.
"You'd better stay away and go back the way you came!" he yelled, but Batmane didn't stop his advance. "You wanted it!"
The Penguin pulled a trigger hidden in the umbrella and fired a bullet straight into Batmane's chest, which he dodged almost at the last moment. Oswald's eyes widened, normally having a concealed gun was a surprise factor that didn't allow his opponents to try to escape, how had he known? The bat threw another batarang and snatched his makeshift weapon from his claws before lunging at him, hitting him in the face and knocking him to the ground. Before he could recover, the griffin felt a hoof on his chest, near his neck, and focused on seeing Batmane right above him.
"Hello, Penguin."
"What the hell you want?!" the Penguin shouted angrily.
Batmane pulled a gem from inside his cloak with magic, to Oswald's surprise, and dropped it next to his head.
"Do you recognize that?"
The Penguin turned his head just enough to study the gem, a fire ruby.
"It belonged to a flamethrower that you sold, I want to know who his client is."
The Penguin focused on Batmane, frowning. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye, at which he smirked.
"I do not know what you are talking about."
One of the thugs approached with a pool stick, about to hit the intruder, but Batmane stopped the object, snatched it from its owner, and used it against him, hitting with such force that it broke the stick and sent the ground to the pony. Right after, he focused on the Penguin, who had his eyes wide open.
"I know you're the one who sells weapons in Canterlor, especially weapons with destructive power like that flamethrower. Speak now or I'll break every bone in your body."
The Penguin was proud of himself, he didn't like to be in anypony's shadow, and if that happened, he always took revenge, but he knew how to recognize when he was at a disadvantage.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you what you want to know" he said with a weak smile and extending his claws in a sign of peace. "Look, I don't know who bought it, a representative of his came, said he worked for him. He told me that his boss wanted to rob a bank and that he would give me half of what he stole as payment. So I sent two of my guys to do the shopping, they haven't been back since and I was thinking of sending somepony tonight."
"Where was the delivery?"
"If I remember correctly, it was at 13 Gusty Street, ground floor b."
Batmane watched Penguin carefully for a while before walking away, drawing his batclaw from his belt.
"We'll meet again, Penguin."
Batmane spun around and threw his batclaw, hooking onto the ceiling and coming out the way he came. The Penguin got up, looking at the last place where the bat was, his blood flowing. Focusing on the ponies around him, he growled.
"I want you to spread the word, I'll give a million bits to whoever brings me Batmane's head! Nopony messes with me, NOPONY!"
The window of the small apartment opened, and Batmane's figure entered, looking around. Due to how dark everything was, he turned on his 'predator mode', and in doing so, he saw three bodies on the kitchen table. As he got closer, their status tab appeared above their head, 'deceased'. The bat approached, observing them well, they had the signs of the first stage of decomposition, they had been there for some time, but the most remarkable thing was the wounds on their snouts. The mouth had been cut in such a way that they created a macabre smile, using their own blood as makeup, like a kind of macabre clown.
Looking away from the corpses, Batmane saw in the center of the table a lone poker card, and as he picked it up in his magic and turned it, he saw the image of a clown, and on the sides, a simple word, Joker. The bat looked at it carefully before putting it in his belt, looking at the three dead ponies. As much as he wanted to, he had no means of contacting the police at the time, so despite himself, he walked away, hoping that one of the neighbors, possibly the landlord, would find them. He looked around the apartment and searched the other rooms, searching for any clues he might have missed, but finding nothing, he returned to the window and walked away into the night.
Blueblood was in his dining room, eating breakfast. It had been two days since he found the bodies and the strange card, but he hadn't managed to get anything out of it. He had no hoofprints or claw prints or any magical residue that he could trace back to his owner. It was as if it had appeared out of nowhere or whoever was leaving it didn't even exist. His thoughts were interrupted when Service entered the room with a newspaper on his magic, and from the look on his face, it was up to no good.
"You should see this, sir" he said as he held out the newspaper to him.
Blueblood raised a curious eyebrow as he picked up the newspaper and began to read.
Prosecutor Fancy Pants and his wife go missing.
Last night, well-known Canterlot noblepony and prosecutor Fancy Pants and his wife, model Fleur Dis Lee, mysteriously disappeared. The princesses have given a search warrant to try to find the...
Blueblood stopped reading, looking at Service in surprise.
"Perhaps Falcone or one of his allies have managed to order his kidnapping from Blackgate?"
"I doubt it, Service, they are very well guarded by order of the princesses, but I'm not going to dismiss the idea" Blueblood said as he left the newspaper on the table, thinking. "Tonight I will pay a visit to my Aunt Luna, perhaps she will be willing to give me some more information."
Service nodded, walking away to leave Blueblood alone with his breakfast and his thoughts.
Luna watched her night, waiting. She had been on her balcony ever since she raised the moon, and she hadn't gone to bed yet, she had a feeling that she would receive a visitor since she saw the news in the newspaper, and it was a visitor she was expecting. A few more minutes passed before she spoke to him, still gazing at the stars.
"I knew you would come here after reading today's newspaper."
"Any clues from Fancy?" Batmane said, stepping out of the shadows.
"None, my sister and I have sent for them throughout the city, and Rarity, along with her friends, have come to Canterlot to look for them too." Luna answered as she turned to see the bat. "We only have one witness, their personal chauffeur, the last pony to see them alive."
"Said something?"
"According to him, he took them to a play and never saw them again" Luna frowned, indignation in her eyes. "But something tells me he's lying. Fancy was in an accident with third degree burns to one of his legs and the doctor told his to stay home until he got better. And from what little I know of him, he was always a pony who followed the doctors' rules to the letter. Also, the driver now had a fair amount of bits, which, if you ask me, is pretty suspicious."
"Did you drop him?"
"Until we thoroughly investigate who entered the theater that day, we have no proof and we couldn't lock him up against his will. But something tells me that won't be a problem for you, am I right?"
Batmane didn't reply, so Luna took it as a no. She turned around and looked at her moon once more, feeling the presence of the bat disappear. She hoped that he would be able to find the married couple, and hopefully, safely.
Terra Road, an earth pony with brown fur and a chestnut mane, came out of a bar with a huge grin, a bag of steady, rattling bits in his saddlebags. He had been paid very well for doing a job, and his luck had increased to the point of beating his friends in a bet, it was definitely a good day. However, that luck seemed to wane as the clouds above his head began to drop it burden on the city. The stallion grunted as he ran, he had forgotten that the pegasi were expecting rain that day in the city, something about balancing the weather, he never understood why they couldn't have sunny days forever.
He ducked into an alley he knew well, he'd used it countless times in the past, running through the narrow spaces toward his house. When he was halfway there, he felt something grab one of his hind legs and he was thrown into the air, screaming the whole way. When at last he stopped, something spun him around and pulled him close to a face with long ears and white eyes devoid of any soul... Batmane.
"WHERE ARE FANCY AND HIS WIFE?!" he scream, like a raging demon searching for his soul.
"I... I don't know! Seriously, I... I just took them to the theater! I swear...! I swear to Celestia!"
"SWEAR TO ME!"
Batmane let go of the rope holding him and lunged downward in a nosedive. Terra screamed as loud as he could, nearly ripping out his throat. The rope stopped a few meters away and he lifted him up again, leaving him facing the bat again.
"Okay, okay! I was paid to take them to one of the abandoned Ace Wing Chemicals warehouses! I swear, I don't know anything else!"
Batmane didn't respond, instead letting Terra drop into free fall, and just before he crashed, he stopped him. The rope snapped free and the earth pony crashed to the ground, groaning in pain but crying with relief that their was still alive.
"Come on, prosecutor, is that all you can take?"
Fancy raised his head slightly, looking at his tormentor, a unicorn smiling sadly, behind him two other ponies, an earth pony and a pegasus. He had been chained to the ceiling, his legs on his head, and an inhibitor ring on his horn, how had they managed it? He wasn't sure, but it didn't matter either.
His wife was in a corner, along with two other ponies, unicorns, who had used and tortured her in front of him, much to his horror, and she hadn't moved in a long time. He had ripped out his throat begging them to leave Fleur alone, to focus only on him, but it hadn't helped. In his head, that presence was there, stronger and stronger, the situation of extreme stress he was experiencing and the lack of his pills making him stronger.
"I think we can finish him off now" the earth pony said to the unicorn in front of him, who nodded.
"Bring the alcohol."
One of the other unicorns got up from where he was and grabbed a small jug filled with medicinal alcohol, which, as was well known, was highly flammable. His initial tormentor took a good look at him, noticing the burns on his left leg, and with a smile, pointed to that area of the body.
"Let's put the left part on par, it will be fun to see how only half of him burns."
"But remember that we shouldn't kill him, the boss was very clear" said the pegasus as he looked at the prosecutor, to which the unicorn rolled his eyes.
"Yes, yes, I know. And anyway, I don't know why you have so much respect for him, just because he gave us some of the money he stole from that asylum I'm not going to be loyal to him until death."
"You know, he's fucking crazy."
The unicorn ignored his partner and watched as they poured alcohol all over the left side of his body, covering him completely.
"Please…let us go…" Fancy begged, being completely ignored.
The unicorn that made him the alcohol dropped the carafe and pulled a match from his jacket, lighting it and throwing it at the pony, who burst into flames and cries of pain. Those present watched as half of his body caught fire, but they had to stop looking at him when they heard the warehouse doors open, somepony was there. Nervous, the ponies looked at each other before slipping away through another of the exits from the small room they were in.
A short time later, Batmane entered the room, seeing Fancy screaming in pain as he burned. Acting quickly, he unhooked the unicorn from the hook he was on and ripped off his cloak to cover the fire and put it out, which he managed after a few seconds. Little by little, the stallion stopped screaming and fell unconscious, covered by the bat's cape, who focused on the mare and approached, placing his hoof on her neck to look for her pulse... but he couldn't find it. Fleur was dead, and he didn't know how her husband would react.