//------------------------------//
// The Batmare Vol. 1: Batmare Begins: Issue #1: Hunter in the Night 
// Story: MLDC: The Justice League of Equestria - Omnibus 1 
// by littleman001 
//------------------------------//

It was a dark and ominous night in the city of Manehattan as the carriage of Shady Deal slowly rolled into the harbor. 'Then again, when was the night not ominous in this city?' The dark brown earth pony stallion thought to himself with a scoff. He wasn't sure why was he feeling this way. He finally got the opportunity he was waiting for ever since he left the farm he grew up on to make a name for himself in the big city. It wasn't often that a 'country bumbkin' earth pony was put in charge of one of Caramel Falcon's most important operations. It was a huge opportunity for him to prove his worth, even if he knew that the choice of his boss fell on him more due to a lack of any other guys rather than his faith in his competence. He didn't seem particularly thrilled when he had to assign him to this operation, though he hardly seemed thrilled about anything these days.

Shady only heard rumors about it, but more and more of his operations were going up in flames recently. Ever since his biggest rival in the underworld of the city, Silver Martini was put away, everypony believed that Falcon would easily take over every aspect of the underworld, but it seemed whatever misfortune did Martini in, has not gone away. Instead, it changed it's target from him to the other powerful mob boss in the city. And Shady was feeling it too. Despite his determination and optimism, he couldn't shake off a sense of foreboding. He couldn't explain it, but he had the feeling that something was going to go seriously wrong tonight. He shook his head in an attempt to chase these thoughts away. It was probably just the overall gloomy atmosphere of the other guys in the organization lately.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a tapping on the window of his carriage's door. He looked out to see a light yellow pegasus stallion standing outside. Slightly embarrassed by having been caught stuck in his thoughts, the earth pony readjusted the tie on his suit and got out of the carriage.

"Are you Yellow Mist?" The pegasus scoffed and spread his wings wide while motioning across his body.

"What gave it away?" He asked. Shady rolled his eyes before walking past the other stallion.

"Let's just get this over with." Yellow Mist followed him, his expression showing amusement at the earth pony's apparent discomfort.

"Nervous?"

"Of course not!" Shady Deal snapped back at him. "I just don't want to spend more time freezing out here than necessary."

"Sure." Yellow Mist mused, before walking ahead of Shady and opening up the warehouse he was heading for. "I'm sure the rest of the boys will be just as enthusiastic as you are."

“If they want their money, they're gonna have to work for it.” Shady retorted as he made his way inside. Yellow Mist just chuckled, before following him. “How's the cargo anyway?”

“Perfect shape and condition.” Yellow Mist replied. “For now anyway.” Shady raised an eyebrow at him.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Haven't you heard?” It was Yellow Mist's turn to raise an eyebrow. “This is the fourth shipment this month and none of them made it out of the harbors.”

“Of course I've heard. But that won't happen under my management.” Shady boasted. Yellow Mist rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say, boss pony.” He then turned to the workers in the warehouse. “Alright, boys! Look alive! The new boss has arrived!” The workers, who were mostly lazing around until now looked up and gathered around the middle of the room to listen to what the new stallion in charge would have to say.

“Right.” Shady began. “As you all know, the boss has been on the edge lately. So let's go and make him happy. By sunrise, we're gonna have to make it look like these canisters were never here. Am I understood?” Nopony in the room said anything, but a few of them nodded and that was all the confirmation Shady needed. “Good, now let's get to work. Load them onto my carriage.”

The workers all grabbed a barrel and put them on their trollies before they started carrying them out of the warehouse. Shady Deal walked to the side to supervise their work. The work was going quite smoothly so far, but Shady couldn't help but notice that some of his workers looked rather agitated. It didn't bother him much until one of the workers accidentally knocked over one of the barrels, which sent most of the others into a fright. One of them even attempted to run straight out the door, until Shady stood in front of his path and sent him back to work.

“What's wrong with them?” He asked Yellow Mist who was standing next to him. “Since when did Caramel Falcon hire ponies who got spooked by their own shadows?”

“Lot of those boys were reassigned here from the previous operations that were burned to the ground this month.” The pegasus answered. Shady Deal was not one to be easily surprised, but this caught him off guard. A strange sense of morbid curiosity wormed it's way into his mind.

“Really?” He wondered out loud. “So... uh... do they actually know... what happened at those warehouses?” Yellow Mist shrugged.

“No idea. They never said anything to me. Why don't you try asking them yourself?” Shady glanced at a fidgeting worker who was just coming back from outside for another barrel and stopped him.

“So... you were there at one of the previous warehouses this month?” The worker's eyes widened in fright as he remembered that terrifying experience. He gulped nervously before nodding. ”What exactly happened there?” The worker seemed reluctant to answer.

“Uh... sorry, boss, the big stallion said we are not supposed to talk about it.”

“Oh, come on! Everypony is talking about it. Everypony heard how those warehouses were destroyed and some even know how. Even those who weren't there. Tell me!”

“Well...” The worker looked around nervously as if to see if anypony was listening in on the conversation. “I didn't see much of it. I was outside when the fire started, but I could hear some fighting from inside.”

“Wasn't much of a fight.” Another passing worker who also happened to be there added. “The guys in there were thrashed without even a hint of who was it that hit them.” This worker seemed to handle what he saw that night much better than his coworker, but Shady saw it in his expression that the next part unnerved even him. “And as we dragged them out, we saw the boss. Beaten to a pulp and hanging from a lamppost by his ankle.” Shady's eyes widened at the picture they painted for him. The last pony in charge of this operation was a massive unicorn stallion well known for his expert use of magic. Who could have possibly gotten to him like that? Or what? “And then the entire place blew up. With the whole shipment still inside.”

“Just like that?” Shady wondered, starting to become a little nervous himself. The worker nodded in affirmative.

“Just like that.” The worker affirmed. “We didn't even get a glimpse at what could have caused it. Some of the other guys who were there during the previous night did see something though. They say right before it burst through a window and started beating everypony up, they swore that they saw a...” But before he could finish, he was interrupted by yet another worker.

“Aw, don't give us this horseapple again about 'The Bat'! We're getting really tired of it.” Shady raised an eyebrow. This conversation was beginning to intrigue him more and more.

“Bat? What Bat?” Before the second worker could answer, the third one beat him to it.

“Don't listen to them, boss. Just a little spooky story made up by some of the more superstitious guys among us.”

“The fact that a bat-shaped boomerang was tied to the end of the rope the old boss was hanging from isn't made up!” The second worker turned to snap at him. “Nor was one of our arrested guys nearly jumping out the window of the prison hospital when he thought he saw a bat passing the window.” The third rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Are you done scaring the new boss with campfire stories? I need to load the next barrel onto the carriage!" With that, he pushed the barrel past the other two workers and left the warehouse.

The worker pushed his trolley towards the carriage while grumbling under his breath, frustrated with the nonsense of his coworkers.

"Bloody idiots. A bat hunting criminals in the night. What's next? Santa Hooves and the Tooth Fairy waging a gang war?" During his complaints, he proceeded toward Shady Deal's carriage to unload his cargo, when he heard a sudden rumbling sound coming from around the corner of the warehouse.

"Who's there?!" He spun around, reaching into his west to pull out his gun and pointing it in the direction where the sound came from. After a few seconds of nothing happening, the worker calmed down slightly and put his weapon away.

"This place gives me the creeps." He said, before resuming his way toward the carriage. "Hey, Salty, here's another one for the carriage!" To his surprise, no response arrived to his call. "Come on, Salty. Stop screwing around! I don't wanna spend a second more than I have to here!" But his cries were once again met with silence. "Where in Tartarus is that idiot?!"

Suddenly, he noticed from the corner of his eyes that the door of the carriage was open. He found that odd as the passenger part wasn't where they were supposed to load the canisters. Abandoning his cargo for a short time, he walked up to the open door to see what was up with it. When he peeked inside, his eyes widened in shock. Inside the carriage, was lying the pony he was looking for. Salty Air, the large black earth pony stallion was on his side unconscious. Somepony did quite a number on him and then dumped his body inside the carriage, which - considering the stallion's massive size - was quite a feat.

He jumped away from the carriage in fright and turned to run back to the warehouse and warn the others. But he didn't make it far. The last thing he saw before everything went dark, was a black leather mask giving him the most terrifying glare he's ever seen.





Back inside the warehouse, the workers continued their rounds under Shady's supervision. So far, things have been going smoothly. But as time passed, the same ominous feeling that Shady felt when he first entered the docks returned. He has almost forgotten about it, but now it was even stronger than before. It was now less of a foreboding and more of dread slowly creeping up his spine. Dread of an unavoidable disaster that was getting closer and closer. And it may have been just paranoia, but he thought he was starting to notice that the number of workers inside was dwindling by the minute.

The sudden sound of hoofsteps made him jump in fright. He turned to his left and saw that it was only his pegasus assistant, Yellow Mist walking away towards the exit. He was embarrassed about how jumpy he was acting, but that didn't stop him from calling out to the pegasus.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Yellow Mist turned to look at Shady over his shoulder with an expressionless look.

"My shift is over. I was only supposed to let you and your guys into the warehouse. The rest is up to you." Shady was about to argue and hold him back, but the bad feeling he felt in his stomach was so strong that he didn't even feel the strength to do that. And the parting words of Yellow Mist certainly didn't make it any easier. "Good night and good luck."

Shady went back to supervise his workers and tried to ignore the sense of dread in his stomach. For a minute or two, he felt like he managed to do it. Until he suddenly heard a huge clanging sound coming from the side of the room. And Shady could tell his workers heard it too as they all jumped in horror and turned their heads in the direction of the sound as one. Shady couldn't explain why, but this was the moment he knew disaster was about to strike and there was now nothing he could do to avoid it. He followed the gaze of his workers and saw a ventilation grill lying on the floor. Shady forgot about his dread and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"What in Equestria is going on here?" Most of his workers shared his confusion. But one of them had a different reaction. His face contorted with terror as he started galloping towards the exit.

"No! Not this! Not again!" He was about to open the door and head out, but Shady finally found the strength to overcome his worries and stood in his way, trying to push him away from the door.

"Hey! What in Tartarus is your problem?!" He demanded angrily, intimidatingly towering over him. However, Shady could see that it was not him that the panicked stallion was terrified of.

"I've been through this already, man! It's here! It broke one of my legs and three of my ribs! I'm not doing it again! I have to get out of here!" Shady looked down at him in confusion.

"What the hay are you talking about?! What's here?!"

"THE BAT!"

Shady was still confused about all of this, but before he could ask any more questions, he heard another rattling coming from the top of the crates in corner of the warehouse. This made the worker even more panicked.

"Okay, that's it! I'm out of here!" He tried to run past Shady, but the other stallion pushed him back once again.

"Oh, no, you won't!" Shady growled before reaching into his vest, pulling out a gun, and pointing it at the worker. "Do you have any idea what the big stallion will do to you if you bail out?!" The worker however looked undeterred.

"Screw it! Falcon will have me killed, but this thing? It makes you wish you were dead! If you want to shoot me, then do it, but I'm not staying!" He challenged before running past the other stallion. Shady was so stunned by the stallion's defiance that he just allowed him to pass. He actually wasn't going to do it, but he thought the sight of a gun would be enough to change the mind of his underling. Before he could snap out of his shock, he heard a loud, metallic clang coming from right in front of him and jumped in surprise. He looked down and his surprise grew when he saw that his weapon was no longer in his hoof. It was lying on the floor in front of him, broken and among the pieces was a sharp metallic object. Shady lowered his head to inspect it and saw that it was some kind of throwing weapon shaped like a...

"Bat." Now Shady was becoming quite nervous himself. Along with the rest of his workforce. Most of the remaining stallions bolted out of the warehouse. The braver ones among them formed a circle around the middle of the room and pulled out weapons of their own. They then started scanning around the room, looking for the intruder.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of glass shattering and noticed part of the warehouse had gone dark. One of the stallions widened his eyes in startled realization.

"It's... It's taking out the lights." His statement was followed by another lamp breaking and before they could react, the entire warehouse was covered in darkness. 
The crooks pulled out flashlights and lit them up to continue scanning around the room. Shady Deal isolated himself from the rest of the group to hide in the darkness, but he still watched the others' flashlights circling around the room to catch a glimpse of what they were up against.

One of the stallions then felt something wrapping around his ankle. The other five jumped in shock when they heard their cohort scream as he was yanked up into the air. They raised their flashlights to see what happened, but they never got a chance. Another of the crooks was yanked up into the air. Then another. And another. Before Shady knew it, all of his remaining workers have disappeared into the darkness. The only thing he saw was the now still light of the dropped flashlights.

One of the flashlights had rolled over to Shady's hoof and he hesitantly reached for it in an attempt to see what was going on. When he picked it up and pointed it forward, he saw all six of his remaining workers dangling from the ceiling from wires attached to their ankles and knocked out cold. Shady was now positively panicking and turned to leave the warehouse, but when he tried to move, he bumped into something. He looked up to see what it was and his heart nearly stopped.

Standing right in front of him was an equine figure wearing a pitch-black mask with no mouth, tall, pointy ears, pupilless, white glowing eyes, and a long cape flowing down on its back. It was wearing a grey outfit with a yellow belt around its waist and black leather shoes on all four of its hooves, but the most noticeable thing about it was the huge bat symbol on its chest. Shady gulped. He had just met the infamous bat creature his workers were raving about.

Before Shady could do anything, the figure raised one of its legs and pressed it against the stallion's throat, pushing him against the wall. Shady then felt his legs no longer touching the ground as the figures pushed him upwards along the wall and lifted him off of the floor. The figure then reached for Shady's vest, but the stallion regained enough composure to finally put up resistance. He raised his hind legs and kicked the figure in the chest. This had the desired effect of making the figure let him go. He then quickly located the exit with his flashlight and bolted towards it as fast as he could. Once was outside, he locked the warehouse door and headed back toward his carriage.

His feeling of relief and safety when he reached his transport was short-lived when he looked inside. Two more of his knocked-out workers were laying inside, including the massive stallion in charge of loading the canisters onto the carriage, Salty Air. Cursing under his breath, Shady turned away from his carriage and looked for another way of escape. His eyes landed on the ship that brought the delivery of canisters into the city, still resting in the docks. That was his best shot.

He started running towards the ship with all his energy when he heard glass breaking behind him. He looked back and saw the figure bursting through the upper window of the warehouse and spreading its cape to form bat wings with it, before gliding to the ground right behind Shady and resuming the chase. Shady picked up the pace even more and he finally managed to reach the ramp that lead up to the ship's deck. The crew was pretty surprised to see the panicked stallion picking the ramp up and pushing it down to the ground.

"What's going on?" Asked a light green unicorn sailor. "Something wrong with the delivery?" Shady didn't respond, he just ran towards the door that lead down to the lower decks of the ship.

"Just keep it away from me!" He screamed in a frenzy before shutting the door and locking it. The crew's confusion did not lessen.

"What's gotten into him?" Asked a blue earth pony. The unicorn who first addressed Shady just shrugged.

"Probably snuffed too much of the stuff we just brought in." Another earth pony laughed.

"Maybe one of the rats from the cargo found its way to the crates when we loaded it off to the warehouse. That's what spooked him." His crewmates laughed, but it came to an abrupt halt when they heard a loud, metallic clang on the side of the ship. Their confusion only grew when they then heard a strange winching sound that was becoming louder by the second. One of the crewponies went to investigate but found himself punched back on the deck when the bat figure that was chasing Shady launched itself over the railing into the air. The crew was terrified upon witnessing the figure spreading its cape to form bat wings, covering the moon above them in the sky, and gliding on the deck. They did not hesitate to attack.

One of the crewponies picked up a metal pipe lying nearby and took a swing at the figure, but it jumped back with surprising swiftness and dodged effortlessly. It then grabbed the pipe and yanked it out of the stallion's grasp, before bashing him in the face with it, knocking him out. The stallion the figure knocked over when it came onboard got up and rushed at it for some payback. The figure hurled the pipe in its grasp back and then threw it at the charging pony's legs, hitting him in the knees and tripping him.

Two other crew ponies teamed up to tackle the figure together. It stood motionlessly as they approached it and right before they reached it, it jumped over them and did a perfect somersault in the air before landing right behind his attackers. The two stunned stallions couldn't stop themselves in time to avoid toppling over the railing and falling into the water below with loud splashes.

The light green unicorn used his magic to lift some empty crates lying nearby and threw them at the figure. The figure jumped and rolled out of the way before reaching into its belt and throwing another bat-shaped projectile at the unicorn. Seeing as he was busy lifting the crates, he couldn't use his magic to intercept it and it hit him in the face. The unicorn stumbled back and buried his face into his hooves in pain. The figure took this chance and leaped into the air, grabbed one of the crates still mid-air, and brought it crashing down on top of the unicorn.

With the upper deck cleared, the figure went to resume its chase of Shady Deal. The door leading down to the lower decks was locked so it had to find another way in. It looked to the side of the ship where it just grappled its way up to the deck and it got an idea. Reaching for its grappling gun once more, the figure attached the hook to the railing and lowered itself down on the side of the ship before pushing itself away with its back legs and crashing through one of the portholes. Its noisy entrance didn't go unnoticed.

"There it is!" Yelled one of the crewponies who just arrived at the site with a group of his comrades all carrying machine guns. The sailors aimed their weapons at the figure, but they didn't get the chance to fire. The figure reached for its belt and pulled out a small, cylinder-shaped object which he then threw at the heavily armed group. As the object hit the floor, it exploded with a blinding flash and caused all of the sailors to drop their weapons and cover their eyes. The figure took this opportunity and knocked all of the sailors out before the flash even evaporated.

The figure was about to continue its pursuit of Shady Deal when suddenly a door in front of him opened and the stallion in question walked through it.

"Have you taken care of it alre... Oh, ponyfeathers!" Shady cursed when he found himself face-to-face with his hunter. He ran back through the door and was about to slam it shut, but the figure was quicker. It burst through the door before the stallion could shut it and ran after him. Shady ran past another group of sailors who also carried machine guns with them. They aimed their weapons at the figure, forcing it to halt.

The figure looked around. They were in the boiler room. It pulled out a few more bat-shaped projectiles and threw them against the pipes around the room, causing steam to cover everything. The blinded sailors began firing everywhere in panic but the figure remained still. It knew they won't hit it and its mask gave its eyes perfect protection from the steam. It began slowly advancing through the steam and swiftly disposed of the sailors before locating the exit and running out. It had prey to catch up with.

The corridor the figure entered led to a staircase that took the figure back to the upper deck at the other end of the ship. There was nopony around, but still, the figure could hear a metallic sound that appeared to be moving. And it was getting louder. The figure spun around just in time to avoid the hook of the ship's crane slamming into it. It jumped and latched itself onto the chains that lead up towards the crane itself, before starting to climb up on it.

Shady Deal looked down at the deck from the crane's cabin in search of the body of his pursuer. In the darkness of the night, he couldn't see it making its way toward him on the top of the device. Shady breathed nervously as he scanned the deck from above, looking for it when the window of the cabin was smashed to pieces and he found himself being lifted out of the cabin by his collar. Shady screamed in terror as the figure dangled him upside down several feet up in the air by his ankle. He looked up at it and saw it reaching inside his vest and pulling out the papers Falcon gave him regarding tonight's shipment. Once it put the paper away into its belt, the figure gave shady one last menacing glare and let him go.

Shady saw the deck getting closer and closer as he fell. He closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate, but then he felt something wrapping around his ankle that stopped his fall. Whatever it was, it let go of him as quickly as it caught him and dropped him harmlessly on the deck before he even had the time to look up. Once he did, he only saw the top of the crane blocking out the moon. His pursuer was nowhere to be seen. As he was no longer in danger, Shady Deal finally allowed the terror and exhaustion to catch up with him and he passed out. He wasn't even awoken by the huge explosion that eradicated the warehouse he escaped from the face of Equus.





The figure landed on the top of a building just outside the docks. It reached into its belt and pulled out the papers it took from Shady Deal and quickly went through them. Upon finishing, the figure let out an irritated growl and crumpled the papers before throwing them away. Useless. Once again, it featured one of Caramel Flacon's many aliases, making sure there was nothing incriminating against him in them. At the very least, it managed to shut down another one of his drug smuggling operations, making sure fewer ponies in Manehattan will be exposed to them and less money will be on his account. So at least the night wasn't a total waste. And there still were a few more hours until dawn to work. To do some good.

'Not like anypony else will. Not in this city.' The figure thought as it pulled out its grapple gun and pulled its way up to a larger building.

'Sometimes I feel like there's some invisible evil force looming over this city that just brings out the worst in everypony.'

The figure prowled its way across the rooftops deeper into the city, before coming to a halt at the top of the lower building amongst the tall apartment houses. Judging from the glaring neon sign attached to the side of the building, it was probably a nightclub of some sort. The figure was about to take a moment to rest, but its hopes were extinguished by a scream coming from the alleyway behind the club. It ran to the edge of the building and peeked down at a mare lying on the ground as five stallions approached her menacingly. The figure narrowed its eyes beneath the mask.

'I'm not sure what makes me madder. The fact that ponies would commit such atrocities in this city, or the fact that they can.'

As one of the stallions in the group approached the helpless mare, he felt something grab his ankle. He was then yanked up into the air by a wire, much to the confusion of the other four, before being thrown at the top of one of the others with enough force to knock them both out. The remaining three looked up to see a bat-shaped figure descending on them. It landed on the top of a third one, knocking him out, and then glared at the other two. Three already down, this will be easy.

A fourth one launched himself at the figure and tried to throw a punch at it, but it raised one of its forelegs and blocked it effortlessly. It then twisted the stallion's leg before launching a merciless barrage of punches on his head and knocking him to the ground. It then delivered a few more punches to his head for good measure to make sure he won't get up. Upon seeing how easily the figure dispatched of his cohorts, the last member of the group tried to make a run for it, but the figure was not in a merciful mood. It reached for his grapple gun and fired it at the stallion, catching him with it and pulling him back, and crashing him against the wall. The figure then shot one last look at the mare on the ground to make sure she was alright and then grappled its way away before the terrified pony could express her gratitude.

The figure continued its patrol of the city until it reached a building that overlooked a large park with a beautiful round-shaped white building towering in the center of it. For the first time that night, its expression softened. That building was Manehattan's largest library. It stood as a reminder of what it was fighting for. That reminder caused its face to turn determined once more.

'I made a promise on the grave of my beloved that I would rid this city of the evil that took his life.'

With renewed purpose, the figure continued it's way into the night.

'I am vengeance. I am the night. I. Am. Batmare!'