"You two know each other?" Scootaloo asked as she did her best to control her burning hatred for this pony, but to her surprise it looked like Pip was trying to do the same. The pony chuckled and did a slight bow while attempting to kiss Scootaloo's hoof, but she moved it away while resisting the urge to slap him senseless...then having to resist the urge to beat him into pulp.
"Oh yes, I've met him before," Pip said in a calm tone, the same tone Scootaloo used when she tried to repress the anger that was welling up in her. "This is Mr. Manestream. He deals mostly in trade, but he is also well known for being a cruel and rough business pony. He constantly bothers me about trying to buy my business, even though I keep turning him down. What do you want this time?" Manestream chuckled to himself as he took a sip of his drink, looking at Pip over the rim of his glass.
"Come now, young Pip, is that how a gentlecolt speaks to another pony of his own class...hmmm?" he teased with a playful smile, one that was met with a cold stare from Pip. "You know that I wish to buy your company, so that we can merge the two businesses and triple our profits, being able to make more than you would believe in a little under a year. Now, I get that you're still a young business pony, but even you must see that triple is a much bigger number than you are currently earning. Why do you still refuse?"
"Because, my late grandfather taught me to value the employees of my company, rather than to focus only on making a profit; something that you obviously know nothing about," Pip said in an emotionless tone. Scootaloo could still feel the sting of his words, even though she hadn't been the one to whom they were directed. Manestream didn't bat an eye at the remark, but Scootaloo could see the rage beginning to form in his eyes at the insults. But he hid it well, as he calmly took another drink from his glass and looked at Pip again with a laugh.
"Pip, employees are nothing more than paid labor. They will do almost anything if paid enough. Trust me, it's quite fun seeing some of the things they'll do when paid properly. With all the wealth you have inherited, you could easily do the same." Pip was seeing red now and wanted nothing more than to flatten Manestream right then and there. Scootaloo knew that she wouldn't stop him if he tried. But Pip took a deep breath and calmed himself down to the point where he could speak without his voice shaking.
"I would like nothing more than to settle this with our hooves, but I will not brawl in the presence of a lady," Pip said through clenched teeth, while Scootaloo looked around to see what lady he was talking about. "I will, however, ask you to leave me and my friend alone before I make you leave."
"Oh, very well Pip, but do consider my offer some more," Manestream said as he turned and started to walk back into the crowd of ponies. "Don't make the same mistake that your old stallion made when he was still alive."
"Buck that ass, I want to beat him into glue," Pip swore to himself once the pony was out of earshot. Scootaloo raised both her eyebrows at the sudden outburst of language from him.
"Now Pip, is that anyway for a gentlecolt to talk?" she said in a haughty manner, mocking Manestream. "If you are to truly be accepted in society, you must first become a pile of garbage that's only purpose is to continue being pile of garbage. Do you think you can do that?" Pip looked at her in confusion for a few seconds before he cracked up, chuckling to himself at the joke.
"Thanks for doing that, I hate talking to that guy," Pip said with a sigh. "My Dad passed away about two years ago, and since I was his only son, I was the one who inherited the family business. It isn't always fun and the paperwork is boring as heck, but as long as I own the company it prevents scum like him from getting his hooves on it."
"Taking the lesser of two evils, huh?" Scootaloo said with a smile, one that he returned as he looked up at a clock on the wall.
"Man, is it that late already? I must go for now Scootaloo, but I promise we'll see each other again soon," he said as he bowed to her, gently taking her hoof and kissing it. "Until then, mademoiselle." Scootaloo lifted an eyebrow at the performance, but smiled nonetheless as he stood up and walked back into the crowd, waving goodbye to her from over his shoulder.
'He's really changed, hasn't he? I can't believe the colt that used to get picked on in class all the time, for dressing up like a pirate, would become the owner of a multi-million bit company. Never would have expected it from him. Then again, I dress up in a batsuit and go around at night fighting crime, so I guess anything can happen." Scootaloo's thoughts were cut off when she was grabbed from behind by a very excited Rarity, who was very lucky that Scootaloo looked to see who it was first instead of deciding to break her ribs. "Care to explain why you tackled me?"
"Oh, Scootaloo, I know that you said that you had a stallion that you liked, but to think it was the owner of the Black Flag engine company is something that I could never have guessed!!!" Rarity said as she squeezed Scootaloo tighter, forcing the pegasi to have to use her muscles to stop Rarity from breaking her. "I am so proud of you darling, to think that even though you are a crime fighter, that you would have time to get into a relationship. Next time you must introduce me formally."
"Yeah, next time," Scootaloo said as she rolled her eyes. It had been pure coincidence that a stallion that she knew would have been here, and even a bigger coincidence that he had been rich. But then again, Batman always said that luck is just a skill that is harder to master, so maybe her luck was stronger tonight than it normally was. After a little while longer of Rarity introducing Scootaloo to friends of hers, a royal guard came onto the stage in the front and announced that it would be time for the dancing to begin. Scootalo groaned to herself as Rarity began to scan the crowd like a hawk, looking for any stallion that would be fortunate enough to garner a dance with her.
"I'm just going to go sit down," Scootaloo told Rarity, who waved her away as a well-dressed stallion caught her eye. Scootaloo sighed to herself as she sat down, although just like Rarity she too had a stallion in her sights. Manestream was speaking with a number of rich-looking ponies, all of whom were laughing at his jokes like there was a shred of decency in the pony. But despite watching him for nearly twenty minutes, he did nothing suspicious in the least. However, her attention was quickly dragged away from him, when all the lights in the room suddenly went out with a loud bang, causing the ponies to scream in confusion. When the lights came back on a few seconds later, five ponies were standing in the middle of the room.
"Ahoy, ladies and lasses!" the one in the front said, looking up at the ponies at the ball with a smile. "We be here to take your booty," he said with a scowl as he pulled out a cutlass and pointed it at the ponies there, all of who backed away in terror as the other three pulled out weapons of their own. But the pony in the center was the one that they were all truly afraid of, the pony in black. The pony began to walk forward past the other three that were robbing the guests, and came to a stop in front of everypony there. He wore a long red jacket with a black hat that had the skull and crossbones on it, complete with an eyepatch as well. Most called him a ghost or a myth, but his proper name was-"
"Blackmane..." Rarity whispered as he looked over at all the ponies with his one eye, his black coat making the red in his jacket look like blood under the lights. He walked over to Rarity and looked at the number of gems that she had on her red dress, raising an eyebrow as he looked up at her. "You are a foal to come to Canterlot, Blackmane. The princesses are here and I know that they are more than a match for you!" Rarity said with a growl. Blackmane just smiled in return as he walked away from her and back to the center of the room.
"Of course, I know that my crew and I are no match for the two princesses, but that is why I have allowed three of my fastest ponies to go entertain the princesses while ask all of you for your co-operation," he said in a calm, sophisticated voice while he looked around the room. "I am here to collect donations to help keep the rich from being too rich, and any donations you give to us will be appreciated. But if you cannot give, do not worry. I'm sure that we can find something else to take." The ponies all slowly backed away from him as he said this, not sure what he meant. Blackmane stomped his hoof and one of the other ponies dressed like a pirate brought him a magical crossbow that had been customized with a black paint and red skulls, which he then pointed towards the ponies. "So then, who wants to be the first to donate. Don't be shy, you'll all get your turn."
"Then allow me to donate this." Blackmane jumped back as a metal projectile struck him in the hoof and made him drop his crossbow to the floor, the metal device embedding itself in the floor. The ponies all gasped when they saw that the projectile was in the shape of a bat, but Blackmane just smile as he looked up into the rafters.
"Batmare, I didn't expect to see you at this party. Please come on out, I'm the only one on my crew who doesn't bite." Without a sound, Batmare landed behind Blackmane and silently walked up behind him as she went for a knockout blow. But he spun around faster than she thought he could and caught her arm, throwing her over his head and watching with a smile as she landed on all hooves, slowly getting back to her full height. "Still as lovely as ever, Batmare. And still as deadly, I see."
"I won't kill you," Batmare growled at him as he slowly pulled out a black cutlass. "But that's only because it's no fun that way. Breaking criminals like you is what I live for."
"Well, we are at a ball. I guess one dance wouldn't hurt," Blackmane said with a smile before he threw himself at Batmare, swinging his blade at her head as he did so. Batmare rolled out of the way of the swing and shot in for a quick kick, one that the pirate saw coming and jumped away from. He pulled out a crude version of a pistol, like the kind Batman had shown her, from his jacket and fired straight at her chest, the small magic ball striking her directly. But much like the magic crossbow, the ball simply bounced off the armor without leaving a mark.
"I'm going to stop you," Batmare said as she whipped out two batarangs and flung them at his head with precision aiming. Blackmane managed to duck both of them, although his hat wasn't so lucky as both batarangs tore through it and snatched it off his head.
"You do realize that that hat wasn't cheap," he said with a grin as he swung his blade at her, raising his eyebrows as she caught it with her gauntlets and deflected it to the side. Batmare shot her leg out and caught him in the gut, kicking him to the floor and knocking him into a table. "Wow, your dance moves are certainly too much for one partner. But how about four?" Batmare spun around and caught the foal of a pirate who had been trying to sneak up on her with a kick to the jaw, laying him out flat. The other three pulled out their weapons as well and swarmed her, hoping that their numbers would be enough to defeat her. They were wrong. The next one to charge her received a kick to the knee for his troubles and an uppercut to the face to finish him off.
"Your lackeys are weak," Batmare said as she shattered the jaw of the next one to attack her, before finishing off the final one by throwing an electric batarang into his visage, spinning to face Blackmane as the pony fell to the floor. "Give up, Blackmane, you won't escape this time."
"That's what you said last time, my fair lass, but nopony can stop the one who embodies the wind!" he yelled as he threw a chair through one of the windows and jumped out on the bridges that connected the towers together. Batmare leapt out of the window after him and landed on the same bridge he had landed on, looking up to see him running across the bridge to the other side. Her grapple gun was the first item she grabbed off of her belt and she fired it at his hooves, smiling to herself when she hooked his back legs and brought him down with a hard tug. Blackmane pulled out his blade and cut the cable, jumping from the bridge to one of the turret's roofs as he pulled himself on top of it.
"Don't think that you're safe up there," Batmare growled as she jumped up onto the roof with him, dodging the two magic shots he fired at her as she threw another batarang at him, growling when he managed to jump out of the way. Blackmane scrambled to the top of the turret and looked down at her with a smile as the wind whipped his namesake mane behind him.
"Hahaha! This reminds me of the time that we fought along the roofs of Manehattan!" he said with a grin as he moved his head to avoid another batarang. "But as fun as this has been, I'm afraid that otherwise it has been a fairly bad night for me. I didn't get any loot and you kicked most of my ponies' heads in, so...I'll call this one a loss. Until next time!"
Batmare wondered what the heck he was going on about, until the entire castle began to shake as a massive construct of metal and magic rose from the buildings behind him. Batmare's eyes widened in shock and awe as the giant metal ship came to a stop above him, spotlights beaming down on them from nearly every point of the ship, and she could vaguely hear the sounds of ponies barking orders over the loud humming sound. This was like the newest model of the Equestrian air ships, but a much larger version that seemed to have more powerful engines, compared to the ones she had seen. A rope was thrown over the side of the ship and down to him, a rope that was immediately pulled back up when he caught it. Batmare started to throw a batarang, but the combination of the lights and sound threw off her aim and it sailed past the rope. She went for another one, but knew it was pointless when she saw him climb over the side of the ship. So all she could do was watch as the massive titan of metal and power flew off into the night.
"Next time," she muttered to herself as she turned around and headed back to the ball.
====---====
"Oh Scootaloo, thank heavens you're safe," Rarity said as she held her hoof to her head and threw her head back, telling Scootaloo that she was in some shock but not to the point where it could stop her from being a drama queen. The Canterlot guard had shown up just after Blackmane had escaped (this wasn't the first time this happened with criminals) and had promptly arrested the four ponies that had been knocked out by Batmare, whom the guests had told the guards vanished after diving out the window to chase Blackmane. With the ball obviously ruined, the ponies had been told to pack it in for the night.
"It's too bad that the ball had to end like that," Rarity said with a sigh. "I was certain that I would have a stallion by the end of the night."
"Or another restraining order," Scootaloo said with a smirk before laughing at the look Rarity gave her, but the smile fell as she thought back about Blackmane. This hadn't been the first time that she had run into him, and it was certainly not the last, but he confused her to a degree. His MO was to steal from richer ponies and gather their "loot," as he called it, for him and his crew; but it was how he did things that confused her. Despite having done over five robberies, nopony had been killed during any of his robberies, and the only pony that had been hurt was one that had tried to attack him from behind. Interrogating his captured crew was useless since they only knew of him as Blackmane and didn't know who he was otherwise. Her thoughts about the pony were interrupted, as both she and Rarity saw that the two princesses were waiting for them by the door way.
"May we speak with the both of you for a minute?" Celestia asked them. At once they agreed, Celestia and Luna led the two of them to a part of the castle that only Scootaloo and the Elements of Harmony had access to: The Command Room. This was the room where Celestia and Luna kept track of all important information that concerned pony safety. The doors swung open to reveal the blue lit room to the two mares, each of whom took up a seat at the giant table in the center of the room.
"What's the matter Celestia?" Scootaloo asked the princess once Celestia and Luna sat down as well.
"We have found some...disturbing information while we examined the list you...Batmare...provided to us," Luna began as she placed a larger version of the list on the table. "It seems that the Demon Spawns targets are fillies between the age of five and ten, not a day older or younger."
"They're going after fillies now? What will these sickos sink to next?" Rarity asked with an angry growl, while Scootaloo looked at the list with a frown.
"What else are you not telling me?" Scootaloo asked, using the Batmare stare to force the princesses to talk.
"We have found that most of the fillies on the list live in cities or areas farther away from Canterlot, but there is one name on this list that is very close to home."
"Who is it?" Both Luna and Celestia looked at each other with unsure glances before they decided to answer.
"Your young student, Pumpkin Cake."