//------------------------------// // Bats and Alleyways // Story: Suri's Suicide // by Octavia_Melody //------------------------------// As soon as Suri was discharged from the hospital, she followed Coco to a nearby alleyway. It looked almost like the one right next to her apartment, or at least the condemned building she thought was her apartment. "So I'm going to be committed against my will?" Suri asked, "Padded rooms and straight jackets?" "Not if you can figure out why we're here." Coco explained. "It's starting to make sense." Suri recalled, "I was here, in this very spot, as a little filly. There used to be a theatre here. My parents took me to see a play called "Snow Alley". They couldn't find a foalsitter. It was a murder mystery and I was so young. I cried so loud when that poor mare was strangled on stage that my mom and dad had to drag me out. Dad was so angry. They started fighting. A mean looking stallion pulled out a knife and demanded their money. Dad said no, so the guy stabbed him. Mom got stabbed too and the guy ran. My tiny mind couldn't handle it. I repressed it, and then..." Just then, a massive flurry of bats flew out of an opened sewer main and surrounded the two mares. "I see now." Suri said, "I shall become fear. I shall become the night. I shall become a bat, m'kay." "Dr. Brain Trust will see you this evening." Coco reminded her. Suri checked in at the psych ward just as she was told. Dr. Brain Trust awaited her to give the first of many detox sessions. Suri became a model patient as she withdrew from her chemical exposure and came to accept her repressed childhood memories. But in the back of her mind, she could not forget the bats. Several months later, a frightened mare not unlike Coco galloped away from a big, burly stallion brandishing a knife. "Hand over yer purse lady before I take somethin' else from ya!" the stallion threatened. "Somepony help!!" the mare screamed. A black streak swooped down from the sky and swiftly kicked the mugger into the wall. The mugger barely had time to respond before a gloved hoof punched him right in the jaw. A Suri-shaped mare in a pointed black mask and cape held her hoof against his throat. "You're not just some punk mugger." she said in a gravely voice, "Where are the drugs shipping? Where is the snow alloy?" "Go to Tartarus." the mugger swore. "I've already been there." the mare said as she gave the stallion another smack, "Where are the drugs going?! I won't ask again!" "Ace Perfume Plant!" the mugger shouted, "Who are you?!" "I'm Batmare." Batmare said. Batmare slunk through the streets to Ace Perfume Plant that was currently being used as a front for snow alloy, a former insulation material that could also be mixed with cinnamon perfume dye into a recreational drug. Inside the building, the main mare in charge directed her dealers and thugs. "Keep it moving!" Prim Hemline ordered, "We don't have all night!" "Ms. Hemline?" Coco asked, "Are you sure about this? Suri Polomare almost died from snow alloy exposure. It drove her insane. And all this cinnamon is making my eyes bleed." "It's also going to make us wealthier than the two princesses combined." Hemline remind her. Hemline and Coco then heard the frantic screams of the dealers who were currently being dealt a bad hand by Batmare. The masked mare fought her way to Hemline who turned tail and ran. Coco ran in the opposite direction, up the stairs to the catwalk. "I can't go to jail!" Coco begged, "It isn't safe for a pony like me!" Frantically looking for a way to escape, Coco jumped into a cinnamon vat without thinking before Batmare had a chance to grab her. She splashed into the chemicals but Batmare managed to glide onto the catwalk and help pull Coco back up. Batmare still saw Hemline out of the corner of her eye and threw a batarang at her, smacking her in the back of the head and stopping her in her tracks. "No!!" Coco shouted as she managed to pull herself back up and grab Batmare. Batmare instinctively defended herself by grabbing another batarang and slashing Coco across the face, giving Coco a bloody carved smile. Batmare gasped in horror as she had once again caused Coco serious physical harm and instead leapt down and tackled Hemline. "You're going away for a long time, Hemline." Batmare said. "I'll be out in four months with my connections." Hemline said smugly before Batmare bound her hooves with rope. Coco stumbled around on the catwalk, feeling her bleeding mouth. She caught a glimpse of herself in the reflective metal floor. The chemicals had turned her mane green, her fur a brighter shade of white, and her lips red. She smiled as widely as her carved grin and broke into a laughter louder and madder than anything Suri could hope to produce. "ALFRED!!" a certain human billionaire shouted as he nearly leapt out of bed. "It was the talking ponies again, wasn't it, Master Bruce." said the man's mustached butler. "The nightmares are getting worse, Alfred, and weirder." Bruce Wayne explained, "My life is being reenacted by a bunch of female cartoon horses. What did Scarecrow put in that toxin?" "I don't think Scarecrow is to blame for falling asleep in front of the telly during a My Little Pony marathon." Alfred said to himself. "I don't know, Alfred." Bruce pondered, "I wouldn't mind being Batmare."