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// Demons In the Night 
// Story: It Runs In The Family 
// by Onomonopia 
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When night finally fell upon the land once again, Scootaloo returned to her cave beneath her home. She felt at peace here, more than she did when she was in her actual home or whenever she went out. The sound of the bats fluttering around her was more calming than any music, and she knew that here she would find peace from the world. But tonight would not be a peaceful night, since she prepared for a fight tonight. Scootaloo stood in front of her armory, looking over all of her gadgets and weapons, to decide which she would take with her. She had to pick wisely, since a wrong choice could spell the end for her if she messed up on the battlefield. After thirty minutes of staring at all her weapons, she decided that she needed the electric batarangs, the grapple gun, a number of explosive pellets and her trusted thunder horseshoes--horseshoes that had electricity coursing through them. She put them on over her hoof guards and smiled evilly as she watched the power surge through them.

"I'd hate to be the pony that I'm punching tonight," she said with a chuckle as she turned the gauntlets off with a flick of her hoof, grabbing the rest of her gadgets and placing them inside her utility belt. While she respected Batman completely, she never understood why he had a yellow belt on a black and grey suit. Seemed like it would give him away when he was sneaking around. When she finished placing her gadgets in her belt, she headed over to the computer where she kept her cowl. She picked it up and quickly put it on, changing from the bright and smiling Scootaloo to the dark Batmare. 

'And now the hunt begins.' 

Scootaloo flew over to the pole that traversed all three floors of the cave, grabbing onto it and sliding down to the bottom, where she let go and walked to a large bridge made of naturally carved rocks. On the end of the bridge was a variety of magical teleporters that had been crafted by Twilight; each of them would teleport her to a different city in Equestria. But according to the pattern of murders and the time of night, she figured that her best bet would be to travel to Stalliongrad tonight. So she stepped into the appropriately labeled teleporter and closed her eyes as she felt the magic begin to wash over her, scattering her atoms to the wind before re-configuring her. She opened her eyes under the cowl, to look around the city from the rooftops upon which she found herself, her ears turning in all directions at all the different sounds the city made at night. The screams of those in danger, as well as the wail of sirens in the night, greeted her.

'Okay, according to the pattern generated by the computer, there have been a large number of spikes in dark magic in the south east part of town,' Scootaloo thought, going over the information to make sure that it sounded right. She then spread her wings and jumped off the skyscraper's rooftop, sailing across the night sky with her cape trailing behind her. None of the few ponies that were out saw her, and she flew undetected across the sky, narrowing her eyes to look at a warehouse off in the distance. That was where the source of the dark magic was said to be coming from, so that was her next destination. She landed on the roof of the building without so much as a sound and walked across the roof to find a skylight. She reached inside her utility belt and pulled out a glasscutter (she always carried one) and slowly cut a hole in the glass big enough for her to fit through, allowing her to jump down into the warehouse. Much to her surprise, it was actually a lot bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside, complete with neon lighting and silver tiled floors that most only saw in a government laboratory. She heard a sound to her left, and she looked around the room in search of something to hide behind, settling on a number of boxes in the corner. She dove behind them as two ponies in lab coats walked around the corner, talking to each other as they entered the room.

"I still can't believe that the Batmare found another one of the ritual stations again. That's nearly five times she's been there at the end of a ritual," one of them sighed, as they came to a stop in front of one of the walls, placing his hoof on a hidden panel the Batmare had missed in her initial scan. "Do you think that she knows about the ritual plans?"

"Highly unlikely. She has only stumbled across the rituals on accident, there is no way she can connect the patterns between each ritual. She is just a foal in a suit who thinks that she is the demon, Batman. It is obvious that she is an utter foal." The two of them waited as the walls slid back to reveal a hidden elevator. The two of them stepped onto it without turning around, since the interior was glass and allowed them to look down on the floors below. "After all, she's just a pony in a bat suit. How could she possibly know about us?" When his friend didn't answer, the pony turned to his left to find Batmare standing next to him with a dark smile on her face. He tried to cry out, but a hoof to the side of his head stopped him cold. He collapsed to the floor without a sound, leaving Batmare alone in the elevator to see what they had been looking at. The room far below her was massive, filled with something that made her skin go cold, despite the suit's external resistance to the elements. All she knew, as the elevator that she was on headed down, was she would not like what she found when she got to the bottom. When the elevator came to a stop, two heavily armored ponies stood by the doors and waited for them to open. When they did and revealed the unconscious scientists, they raced forward into the elevator.

"What happened to them?" one of them asked the other.

"I don't know. Maybe it...what's that?" the other asked as he found a small sphere on the floor. He picked it up with a confused look as the device opened, letting a storm of electricity loose and frying them both. Neither of them let out a sound as they dropped to the floor, followed closely by Batmare, who dropped down from the ceiling next to them.

"What the hell...?" she muttered to herself as she stepped out of the elevator and into what she assumed was a laboratory of sorts, but it looked like a lab out of a horror movie. There were hundreds of bodies all suspended in the air; dark ritual circles at their hooves. All of their eyes were closed in pain and they all seemed to be letting out silent screams into the air. Batmare started to walk down the corridor of subjects, trying her best not to throw up, This was in-pony. She saw a light at the end of the corridor of terror, and she stealthily moved closer, hiding behind one of the floating ponies to conceal herself. Two ponies stood at what to her looked like a small computer, which didn't make sense. She was supposed to be the only one with that technology right now, and that was only because of her father. How did they...?

"All seems to be going as you wished," the smaller of the two in a lab coat said with a sickly voice as he pressed a few buttons on his computer. "We have successfully brought one of them over. Although I have no idea how we would have managed a creature like that without your magic skills. All of our magic just seemed to feed it."

"It is a creature of immense power, which we will need to overthrow the princesses," the other pony said in a deep voice. Batmare couldn't see his face due to a white hood that covered it.  And the white cloak covered his cutie mark along with the rest of him. But he was definitely a unicorn, and that he was bad news. He also reminded her of sompony else she had seen. "Pity that we could only summon one of the stronger ones, but it will have to do for now. Have there been any events that might bring unwanted attention to our operation?"

"Only the one with Batmare, Sir. It seems that just last night she managed to discover one of the sacrifice locations, before the disposal team could get rid of the evidence. Now the princesses know and the rest of the nation will soon." The unicorn sighed and placed a hoof on his covered head, shaking it slightly.

"It seems that she has become an issue that we can no longer ignore," he said while turning his head slightly. "We should dispose of her as soon as possible."

"When should we get rid of her sir?" the scientist asked.

"Now." That single word gave away his next move and gave Batmare time to roll out of the way of his magic spell, a spell that blasted apart the floating pony she had been hiding behind. She reached into her utility belt and threw three batarangs before she had come out of her roll, one smacking the unicorn on the side of the head and the other two going into the computer screen. The scientist swore as he was knocked unconscious by sparks that had started to shoot from the computer, while the unicorn regained his balance and simply stared at the costumed Batmare, waiting for her to make the next move. "So the mythical Batmare comes to grace us with her presence. This is a good day indeed."

"Who the hell are you?" Batmare asked, as she took up a fighting stance, preparing herself for anything he might try. The unicorn stopped for a moment and thought about her question, preparing a suitable answer.

"I am simply the instigator," he eventually replied, walking towards her with no fear. "I am simply part of a larger plan for all of Equestria, for all the world. For too long those who are weak have held on to power and used it to make the very world weak in their wake. But now we have found a way to make the world strong again, and all who take part in it will surely have their reward. We are simply the followers of a higher power."

"You all sound like nuts to me," Batmare responded as she flipped herself into the air and attempted a flying kick. The unicorn placed a barrier around himself in response, but she still had enough time to pull her kick in and roll out of the attack, pulling out another batarang and throwing it at his shield. The shield held, but the pony looked surprised when electricity started to shoot from the projectile. "Just like the Jester clan I brought down a few months ago, or any of the other sickos that I deal with on a regular basis, you're nothing special."

"'Nothing special,' are we? I sense that we have a doubter in our midst, brethren," the cloaked unicorn said with a chuckle. Batmare wondered who he was talking to when his chuckle was echoed across the entire laboratory. Her eyes shot up to see at least twenty of the white cloaked ponies were flying above or all around her. She quickly spun around to face the newest threat, but none of the ponies moved to engage her. "While we are more than enough to dispose of you ourselves, there is a more pressing matter that we all must attend to. But do not fear, for you will see the glory of those who will save Equestria. For just as the great demon Batman saved pony-kind from the witch, these demons will save it from the weak." 

Batmare wondered what he was going on about when a ritual appeared and shot a column of darkness in front of her. She backed away as a claw grabbed onto the ground before her and a creature started to pull itself out. She turned on her stun knuckles as the demon fully emerged from the depths of Tarterus.  It was around her size, with the head of a snarling dog and a body covered with pitch black fur that stood up like spikes.

"Behold their glory," the unicorn said before he vanished in a flash of light, all of the other members of his group of sickos following suit. That left her alone to deal with the dog creature.  She brought her front hooves up in a two-legged fighting stance, as its pure red eyes looked down on her and its maw started to drool at the sight of her. It let loose a howl before charging at her, its speed beyond any dog she had seen before. She timed her attack and brought her hoof up to punch it in the jaw with an electric hoof, smirking as she heard it howl with pain and stagger back.

"I thought that you were going to be stronger than this," she taunted as she spun around and delivered a spinning hook kick to its face, sending it staggering back. She landed on both her rear hooves with a smile as the demon shook its head, looking at her with more cautious eyes. It then snarled and stood up on its hind legs just like she was, letting a row of sharp claws extend on its front paws. That's not good," she muttered before the demon resumed its attack, slashing at her with its front legs while quickly closing in on her. She gritted her teeth as one of the claws slashed against the suit, almost cutting through the diamond-enhanced armor. A swift shot to the eye sent the creature to the ground and a massive kick to its gut sent it skidding across the tiled floor, giving Batmare some breathing room. 

"The hell is with this thing," she panted as it started to get back up, the damage to its eye already starting to heal. She looked at the spot on her suit where its claws had almost ripped through, thanking her stars that she had this armor on. "Darn thing nearly tore through my diamond armor, and almost nothing can get through that. What is this thing?" She would have to ponder whatever it was later, for it let loose another roar and started to charge her again. She resumed her fighting stance and waited for it to get closer again. She made it pay when it got closer, flipping over its head and letting her wings take her to the ceiling of the lab, before she kicked off the roof and sent herself flying back down at the creature. It looked up just in time to see a black hoof drive itself into its face, shattering the skull of the demon and blasting apart its brain. It collapsed to the ground as Batmare landed beside it, breathing heavily while she regained her breath.

"Not so tough, are you?" she asked it with a smirk, but quickly jumped back as the demon began to dissolve into a pile of black goo. She stared at the sight for a second before reaching inside her belt.  She pulled out a small vial, which she used to scoop up a bit of the black goo for later examination. "Well, whatever you WERE, I'll know all about you soon enough."  She place the vial back in her belt for safekeeping while she stood up and walked over to one of the spellbound ponies, looking at the circle beneath her hooves with a frown. "Now I need to do something about the rest of you. Should I get the princesses and see if they can fix this mess or--"

"How about you simply die?" Batmare spun around to see who had spoken, realizing that the scientist pony had gotten back up and was standing next to the computer panel, a weird flask in his hoof. "My master has requested that you die for our glorious mission, and I will abide by his words!" The pony popped the lid off the flask and quickly downed whatever was inside. Whatever it was, it made him drop the flask to the floor as he clutched his heart and started to scream while his body began to mutate. His skin went from white to grey as red cracks started to appear along his body. He grew to about twice her size and his eyes were replaced with black dots. The new monster turned towards Batmare with an insane smile in its eyes, slowly walking towards her while laughing.

"Behold our glory," he said in a sinister voice. Batmare said nothing in return, instead bringing up her hooves in preparation for another tough fight.