It all started with a break-in at the Canterlot Archives. A very unusual break-in at that. Very few details were revealed to the public, especially once the royal guard was called in to investigate.
Photographs of the scene of the crime were taken, the area within the archives where the break-in took place was thoroughly investigated for hoofprints, and any potential clues were carefully inspected. To prevent public panic, the archives were closed down and the area that had seen the break-in was sealed off with yellow crime tape. Even Princess Celestia had nothing to say on the matter when asked about it, though it only served to fuel speculation among some citizens that something was amiss.
Still, there was very little anypony could do except wait for the investigation to be completed.
"I'm telling you, this doesn't make sense," One guard whispered to another as they patrolled the crime scene together. "As soon as we got word about the break-in, everypony fell silent. Even the princess wouldn't tell us what was going on, said it was on a 'need to know' basis. What doesn't she want us to know about?"
The other guard just grumbled back. "How should I know? We're just supposed to stand guard and not ask questions. If the princess isn't worried, you shouldn't be either."
The first guard could only sigh. "I know, I know. But still, you think the least the princess or our captain could do would be to clue us in on what we're supposed to be keeping an eye out for."
"It's a top secret matter. The break-in happened in the Starswirl the Bearded section of the archives, and that's where they keep the most powerful spells." A gruff, mysterious voice spoke up from the shadows. As it spoke, a sudden chill seemed to fill the air.
The guards flinched! "W-who's there?!" One demanded, trying not to show how intimidated he really was. "W-whoever you are, y-you'd better show yourself right now... o-or I'll have to take you in for questioning."
Emerging from the shadows was a figure cloaked in a long, flowing black cape. Matching it was a costume that consisted of a solid dark-gray suit reinforced by thick armor, black gloves and boots, and a black mask roughly rectangular in shape. Emblazoned into the center of the suit's chestpiece was a black symbol that depicted a bat. The gloves and boots appeared to have spikes along the outside of them. And was it the guards' imagination, or did the eye holes in the mask appear to be glowing?
There was only one figure who looked like that. It was one that some ponies still believed to be just a myth or an urban legend: It was Batmare, the self-proclaimed "Dark Knight"!
Batmare walked slowly, a dark-blue belt holding various gadgets could now be seen as she emerged fully from the shadows. As she did so, the glowing lights of her mask vanished. Still, it wasn't possible to see who it was underneath the mask. "Easy," She spoke in a low, gruff tone of voice. "I'm on your side."
"Oh yeah?" The first guard snapped! "Who invited you anyway?! We have everything under control here, Batmare! We don't need you interfering with our investigation!"
Yet it was then that another voice familiar to the guards spoke up. "Stand down, men. I specifically asked her to be here. Her detective skills are quite legendary. And for a case like this, we need all the help we can." Soon, who should come trotting up on the scene but Captain Shining Armor himself? He was even clad in his usual captain's attire, including his purple helmet and matching suit of armor.
The guards reluctantly parted ways, allowing their captain to approach the costumed crime fighter in all her mysterious glory. "About time you showed up, Batmare. You really do live up to your reputation it seems."
Batmare gave a slow nod and cleared her throat. "So, what's this all about, captain? It's obvious this is no ordinary break-in. Why all the secrecy?"
The captain took a deep breath and explained. "Probably better to show you than to tell you. Follow me," When Batmare did so, he began laying out what information he was willing to reveal. "It's the Starswirl the Bearded section that was broken into. The weird thing is, though, that there's no sign of forced entry. No broken locks, no knocked down walls, nothing. But we know there had to be a break-in, 'cause one of the scrolls housed in that section was reported missing."
Batmare followed Captain Armor into the aforementioned section, quickly taking notice of the royal guards stationed throughout it. They stood at attention next to every row, spears at the ready. She was soon led down one such row, only to be stopped midway through. A quick look at the shelf off to her left revealed a gap that had been left by the missing scroll that was undoubtedly stolen. She tapped one of her gloved hooves to the side of her mask, causing the mask to emit a ghostly white glow for a second. Then it stopped. "Whoever took the scroll was in a real hurry," She told the captain. "The other scrolls were put back on the shelf in a very disorganized fashion."
"Yeah, we noticed," Captain Armor replied. "No clue what could've been on it, though. Since this is the Starswirl the Bearded section, it could've been anything. That old wizard did just about everything under the sun during his time. Naturally, Princess Celestia has made recovery of said scroll a top priority. But we haven't found any leads yet."
"What about the security on the night of the break-in?" The costumed crime fighter questioned the captain. "Did the guard on duty report any strange sounds or sights?"
"He was the first pony we asked after we started our investigation," The captain gave a firm answer. "Says he had his keys on him the whole time, they never left his sight. We checked them ourselves, and they were still firmly on his outfit. He was the one who reported the break-in and the stolen scroll. Neither he or the other guards reported ever hearing a thing the whole night."
Batmare didn't reply with words. She instead turned and trotted back towards the entrance of the Starswirl the Bearded section. Something had caught her attention. When she drew close, she kneeled down and examined the object she'd caught a faint glint of in the early morning light. "How curious." She muttered to herself as she held it aloft.
Captain Armor came running over. "Hey, what have you got there?!" And he was quick to warn. "You can't take anything with you! This is a crime scene, you know. I may have invited you here, but even I can't turn a blind eye to a violation of the law. If you're even thinking of taking something away, you'll answer to me!"
The caped crusader simply turned around, displaying the object which had attracted her attention. It appeared to be an ordinary looking set of keys. Nothing about them stood out to the naked eye. However, as she rubbed her gloves across the ring that held the keys, she noticed a faint powder that settled onto the gloves. "Powder like this could only come from a magic spell, a hastily cast one at that. Somepony made a copy of the keys, that's how they were able to slip in unnoticed."
"Figured that might be the case. No guard would just give up their keys to a random stranger," Captain Armor replied. "Whoever it was, they clearly put a lot of thought into the break-in. They were looking for something specific, and they didn't want to draw any attention to themselves," He sighed and frowned. "Problem is, they could be anywhere by now. And I don't think I need to remind you that there's thousands upon thousands of unicorns in Equestria. Even if we narrowed it down to high level spell casters, that could take ages. Princess Celestia's practically breathing down our necks already, we have to find the culprit fast!"
"Did the princess happen to mention that the scroll stolen was a time travel spell?" Batmare questioned.
Captain Armor jumped back in surprise and blinked rapidly! "How did you know that?! That information's on a need to know basis only."
The caped crime fighter just vaguely answered. "I have my resources," Then she tapped a glove to the cowl of her mask, emitting a bright blue beam that was aimed at the floor. "Well, what have we here?" She spoke up, and turning to Captain Armor she requested. "Mind telling your guards to turn off the lights for a minute or two? I've spotted something, but it'll be easier to trace it in the dark."
"Fine, make it quick," Captain Armor reluctantly agreed and shouted to a nearby guard. "You heard her! Kill the lights!" Sure enough, a second later, the entire room was cast into darkness.
Amidst the darkness, Batmare spoke not a word as she looked down at the floor. The lights came back on a moment later, and when they did Batmare was nowhere in sight.
Captain Armor blinked in surprise once more. He'd been standing right next to her just a minute ago. How had she slipped away from him that quickly? "Just who is that masked mare anyway?" He thought to himself. "She knows far more about this case than she's letting on. And that voice sounds vaguely familiar to me. But why?"
Batmare, meanwhile, was pursuing something that she had discovered while in the Canterlot Archives. It was a set of concealed hoofprints. They had the same magical powder-like residue on them as the copied key ring. The thief who had stolen the time travel scroll had clearly sought to cover their tracks, but had done so in a hurry. Although the spell they'd cast did mask the hoofprints from sight of the naked eye, it left behind a trail detectable by special technology, the kind of technology Batmare had ready access to.
Batmare followed the trail through Canterlot, ducking into side streets and alleys to avoid detection. She rarely made daytime appearances, but had made an exception as a result of Captain Armor requesting her assistance. Given what she knew about the break-in, however, she was determined not to lose any time! The thief had already gotten a head start. Who knew what they were planning to do with that stolen scroll? Twilight had mentioned once an attempt to use a scroll from the Canterlot Archives to travel back in time. Perhaps the thief was going to do something similar?
Suddenly, however, the trail vanished! The lingering magical residue left no doubts that the thief had teleported away. However, they had still inadvertently left something behind: It was some sort of calling card that took the form of a small dagger.
Picking up the dagger, the caped crusader could just make out the words "League of Assassins" etched into the blade's handle. A gasp escaped her lips! She had seen this sort of thing before, once. Shortly after Two Face had been arrested and sent to jail, there had been a reported attempt to break him and a few other high profile criminals out. The attempt had been thwarted, thankfully, but the ones who'd tried to stage the breakout had all said they'd been working on behalf of the "League of Assassins". Yet when Batmare had run a computer database search afterward, no information could be found on such a group or organization. It was like they had just appeared out of thin air.
The costumed crime fighter decided then and there that she had best return to her lair to plan out her next move. So after carefully tucking the dagger into an open tab on her utility belt, she pressed a button.
In the distance came the roar of an engine! Soon, the familiar form of the motor-carriage that was the Batmobile appeared in its long, drawn-out roadster design. The roof of the cockpit slid back and opened up, enabling Batmare to climb into it before the roof slid back over her head. Tapping a few buttons, the Batmobile's rear engine roared to life and the vehicle sped away!
"Computer," Batmare said to the vehicle's onboard operating system as she carefully removed the dagger. "Analyze the magical residue on this blade, and run it against a database of all known magical criminals currently at large."
The computer obeyed, scanning the dagger thoroughly and quickly cycling through the database Batmare had suggested. It took only a minute or so for it to declare in an automated voice. "Match found: Starlight Glimmer. Wanted for crimes involving cutie mark theft and abuse of cutie mark magic. Whereabouts: Currently unknown, still at large. One thousand bit reward for any information leading to her arrest."
"So that's it!" Batmare gasped as she pressed the accelerator to the floor. She could well remember that as her alter ego Applejack, she and her friends had had an encounter with Starlight Glimmer in a remote village far beyond the mountains. The unicorn had taken away the cutie marks of all the villagers, ruling over them to ensure they followed her ideology of equality to the letter. When it had come to light that she still had her own cutie mark and hadn't given it up, the villagers had turned against her. Yet the unicorn had ultimately escaped, vowing to get her revenge.
Knowing how powerful Starlight had proven herself to be, Batmare now had a sinking feeling in her gut about where the power hungry, revenge driven unicorn might be! It was no secret at all that Princess Twilight, the most popular of the pony princesses, lived in Ponyville. And despite having obtained her own castle not too long ago (almost a year ago by now), she had no security, having expressed publicly her belief that it was not necessary.
"If Starlight's as driven by revenge as she seemed to be, she's probably plotting to use that time travel scroll to change the course of history. And if Twilight gets in the way, she might be using the league to help her eliminate the princess!" Batmare thought with a sense of urgency! She had to get back to Ponyville right away, she had to stop Starlight and save Twilight before it was too late!
Alas, events were already being set into motion. Only later would Batmare learn that Starlight had already gone ahead and cast the spell, altering the flow of time.
And when that spell was cast, everything changed! All of Equestria began to shake as a huge blue wave of energy washed over it! In the sky above appeared several large bubbles that appeared to be adrift in an invisible sea! Yet nopony knew what was happening, not even Batmare herself.