//------------------------------// // When the Crow Caws // Story: It Runs In The Family // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// The first thing that Batmare noticed as the door closed behind her was that the entire room felt like a sauna, and she could see steam coming out of the pipes in the walls, as well as a massive stream of water that boiled with heat. She quickly scanned the room she was in to make sure that nopony was in there with her, before she turned her attention to the scalding stream. She would be able to fly over it with no problem despite the heat, but with no knowledge of what was on the other side it might be risky. But Batman's safety and what the gunmen had been talking about worried her, so she decided to risk it and dove over the boiling water as she spread her wings. She flew under a bridge and came out the other side to see what looked like massive drills in the water, not moving due to lack of maintenance. Past that was a corridor with more water and a green question mark on the wall, but its bulb had burned out. But her main concern, as she landed on a pipe, was the trio of enemies standing around near the next door. "I can't believe that someone finally managed to catch the Bat," one of the grunts said with a chuckle. Batmare noticing that none of these henchmen had the cylinder that tore through her armor. "I know, always thought it'd be the Joker that would have caught the Bat, not Scarecrow," another muttered as he took a sip of water from his bottle. "But ever since the Joker died, things just haven't been the same. Crime has gone down, police act like they're in charge, and the Bat has gotten even more birds in his cage. Maybe when Batman finally dies, things will go back to the way they used to be." "Speaking of dying, what has Scarecrow been doing to Batman for the past day?" another asked. "He hasn't killed the Bat; all he's done is continue to spray him with that gas of his. Why don't we just kill him and get it over with?" "Naw, he want's to break the Bat first; then we get to cut his head off. Personally, I hope Scarecrow let's me keep the mask. It would be a great Halloween outfit." "That's sick, but I like it. Maybe I can keep the suit." The three's conversation drifted into areas where they each started to talk about past Halloween outfits, but Batmare was beginning to get both mad and even more worried. She had no idea who this Scarecrow was, but if he caught and was trying to break Batman, then it wouldn't end well for him. Time to take action. "...and then the lady screams for me to stop throwing flaming toilet paper on her dog, but I just laughed and--" The goon received two hooves to the back of his head before he could finish and was sent skidding across the floor on his face. The other two spun to see Batmare land in front of them, seething with rage. "Holy hell, it's one of the bats!" one of them yelled as he rushed towards her and tried to throw a kick at her head, only to watch in fear as she jumped onto his leg to use it as a spring board, propelling her front hoof into his jaw and driving him to the floor. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and flipped to the side as a fire extinguisher flew past her, the goon swearing when he missed and rushed in with a pipe. "Beat it down and kill it!" he roared just before he got a mouthful of electric hoof to the face, knocking him down and out. The final goon ended up just like his friends, face down on the ground with blood trickling from his nose. Batmare walked past them and to the door, noticing how old everything looked. She grabbed the handle and coughed twice, before swinging it open. And her world went to hell. The room beyond this one was lined with tiles and stained glass similar to the ones she saw in Canterlot, but all of the images were horribly disturbed. Instead of showing the triumph of ponies like before, it showed terrors that she had only read about in the olden times. She looked at the single square of ground she was standing on to the infinite void below her, looking forward into nothingness. She was scared and had no idea what was going on. But the thought of keeping Batman safe drove her forward as she took to the air once again, sailing into darkness with her eyes narrowed. After only a few seconds, a wall shot up from the ground and forced her to change her flight path, which she barely managed to do without hitting it. She had regained her balance when another wall shot up, followed by another when she had dodged that one. 'These walls are leading me somewhere,' she thought as she flew around another, looking down to notice that the emptiness beneath her had been replaced with a river of blood. She shook her head and ignored it the best she could as she flew, but she nearly threw up again when she saw the bodies hanging from one of the bridges. She had to descend onto a small platform so that she wouldn't drop from the images before her, but as she looked up she saw all of her friends hanging by their necks, eyes replaced with bloody spheres and mouths stitched shut. 'It's not real,' she thought to herself as she closed her eyes and tried to put the images from her mind. 'They're all safe back in Ponyville. They're not here.' She gritted her teeth as she flew by the bodies, only to scream as the one of Twilight reached out and grabbed her. "What are you doing with your life, little filly?" Twilight asked, even though her mouth was stitched shut. Batmare screamed and kicked her in the head, forcing Twilight to break her grip which allowed Scootaloo to fly up onto the bridge they were hanging from. She turned to head to the exit, but found Twilight standing in front of her. "Playing hero even though you are a failure. No cutie mark, losing your friends, and you're worthless." "You honestly think I care what a fake has to say about me?" Scootaloo asked with a growl, swinging her hoof at Twilight only to realize that she was a filly again and her attack did nothing to the body. "I am a hero! I am the daughter of the greatest hero known to man kind!" "Are you now?" the Twilight asked with a laugh as a crow started to caw in behind her. "Has he ever called you his daughter? Has he ever admitted that he loved you? Maybe you don't mean as much to him as you thought. Or maybe...?" "He's ashamed of you." Scootaloo spun around to find the one person she didn't want to see in this nightmare standing behind her: Batman. The Dark Knight looked worse than all the other corpses, with just his skeleton remaining under his shredded suit. "Despite all that I taught you, all the ways I tried to keep you safe, you still think that you need to prove yourself, just like you needed to all those years ago. I gave my life for you and this is how you repay me? By dressing up like me and trying to be some hero? But you're not a hero, you are a failure." "I'm not a failure!" the foallike Scootaloo said, knowing that this had to be an illusion as well. "I want to be a hero! It's who I-" "Who you are?" Batman asked with a cackle, slowly marching towards her. "Oh that's what you say, but you truly don't know who you are, do you?" Scootaloo didn't answer as the room around them changed, going from a bridge with bodies to her entire life from when Batman left to this point. "You've gone through your entire life not knowing who you are, not knowing what your destiny is." Scootaloo slowly backed away from him as the images showed her being picked on for not having her cutie mark or for being parentless, then changed to her beating those ponies when it went too far. "I taught you those skills so that you could defend yourself, not so you could hurt those who bothered you. You have truly failed me." "No...I used what you taught me to make my world safer!" she screamed as another crow cawed behind her, Batman laughing at her again. "Oh, you say that, but all you're trying to do is be like me, trying to be the Batman. But you will never be me, you can't be me," he said in a whisper as he slowly walked towards her, the bridge behind her expanding into nothingness as darkness began to swallow them, Batman's red eyes being to only thing visible. "All you've wanted after all these years was to hear me say how proud of you I was, or how much I care for you. But I don't care for you. All you are is a scared little filly who ran all her life from her problems until she found someone she could hide behind." "N-no, I'm not a-" "Not a what? Coward? You refuse to face the fact that you are alone, and you run from the fact that you are nothing but a little filly who is trying to be who she is not. Who are you Scootaloo? Are you a scholar? An outstanding member of society? Or are you a pony who is holding on to the last illusion of comfort she has, believing that she can be someone she isn't? You have no idea who you are because you're trying to be someone else. Every day you go through life cold, alone, and in pain, praying that one day your "father" will acknowledge you for being a copy of him. It's truly pathetic. So just close your eyes and let me end your suffering." Scootaloo backed away from Batman with tears running down her face, feeling what felt like a knife being twisted in her heart. She was used to hearing these words, but the fact that Batman was saying them to her made it all the more worse. She collapsed to the ground and could only stare at it as Batman flickered into the image of a being resembling a scarecrow standing above her with claws extended. "Rest in peace." Before Batman could swing down, a blinding flash of silver light blinded the bat, causing him to back away from her with a hiss. 'This way.' Scootaloo had no idea who had called to her, but she found enough strength to force herself back to her hooves and bolt away from the 'Bat', who told her that run as she might, he would find her again. She sprinted through a nightmare, ignoring it as best she could and not noticing when the armor re-appeared on her. A circle of crows flew around her as she sprinted down the halls, screeching at her as she fled desperately. Batmare burst through a pair of double doors to find herself standing in a room filled with fire and steel, three demons standing in the center of it. One of them noticed her and hissed, walking towards her with two claws extending from it's hands. "No, stay back!" she roared as the creature charged at her. She pulled a batarang out of her belt and threw it towards the creature, watching with horror as the burning demon knocked it to the side and continued its charge. Batmare pulled out another one and let it fly in desperation, watching as it sailed into the demon's neck. The creature screamed as green ooze began to pour from its wound and it fell over dead. The other two hissed in rage and charged at her as well, forcing her to stab them in the legs to defend herself. The two of them fell over and allowed Batmare to drive her electric hooves into both of their jaws, where she held them until the two demons stopped moving. She panted twice as she stood back up, looking behind her to see that Batman was right behind her. "Why do you run, dear daughter? Don't you want to be with me?" Batmare turned and ran as hard as she could, bursting through another set of doors into a room where a large number of bumper cars ran back and forth across the ground, each of them having a blazing fire coming out of their faces. She stopped for half a second as she wondered what she should do, when Batman burst through the doors behind her. "Isn't that been your dream all along? To be with your father?" Without a moment's hesitation, Batmare jumped into the swirling vortex of bumper cars and raced to the door that she could see on the other side. A bumper came flying at her with flames in its maw, forcing her to jump out of the way to avoid getting killed. One managed to get behind her and set her cape ablaze with fire, making her detach her cape as she ran. "Do you honestly think that you can escape from me alive?" Batman asked as he walked through the cars with ease, not one of them heading towards him. "I am the greatest hero known to any race in the entire multiverse. A foolish pony who neglected my teachings would never be able to escape me." Batmare forced herself not to focus on what he was saying. Her only thought had to be running and dodging to stay alive. She jumped onto one of the bumper cars hoods to avoid being hit and flipped off of it onto another one, waiting until it had crashed into yet another before she jumped off of it and raced down the long hallway to the door at the end. She heard a whizzing sound and threw herself to the ground as a batarang came flying by her head, Batman following after the batarang with speed that would surpass most of the ponies. Batmare got back to her hooves and bolted for the door, tearing it open and slamming it behind her, using a pipe that she found to barricade it shut. "That should hold him off for a few minutes," she panted to herself as she tried to get control of her heart and calm herself down. She turned from the door...to find Batman standing right in front of her. "Of course, he's the worlds greatest escape and entry artist. Why did I think a door would keep him at bay?" "Because you are a fool, Scootaloo," Batman said with a sneer as he took up a fighting stance, his clawed fingers flicking together. "I tried to teach you what I know, but in the end you couldn't even master the simplest of my skills. I have nothing but shame for you. And I will erase all my shame." Scootaloo took in a deep breath and took up a fighting stance, tired of running. But she couldn't face him here. He was too good. Scootaloo dodged out of the way of his attempts to grab her and burst into the next room, which was a cliff wall straight up. She wondered a moment why this was here when she saw something in the sky: a bat symbol against the dark clouds. She didn't know what it was, only that it might be her only way out of this nightmare. So without a moment's hesitation, she spread her wings and shot up the cliff face, never once looking behind her as Batman's screams reached her ears. When she reached the top she saw what looked like a spotlight with a bat in the center of it, the light coming from it gave her feeling of safety. "Hopefully that can get me out of this nightmare," she muttered as she ran over to it and grabbed hold of it, feeling her fears begin to melt away. She turned to see Batman land on top of the platform along with her, hissing at the light as he marched closer. "Why do this, Scootaloo? Why prolong your pathetic existence. It hurts me emotionally to see you throw your life away like this. Give up on this foolish crusade of yours." "And that's where you fail to be Batman," she said as she swung the light around and pointed it towards Batman. "Batman would never tell me to give up." Batman screeched as the light struck him in the chest and veins of blue light started to form all over his body, bits and pieces of him starting to fly off. "DO YOU THINK HE WILL TRULY LOVE YOU?! YOU ARE A PONY! NOTHING MORE!" the fake Batman yelled one last time as the light completely consumed him and blew him apart in a flash of blue and silver light. Scootaloo let out a sigh of relief as she sank to the floor, closing her eyes and letting all of the darkness out of her mind. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that she was laying on the floor in a fairly small room with a broken flashlight clutched in her hooves. "That...was weird," she said to herself as she stood back up and walked over to what she hoped was the last door, having no idea if another nightmare awaited her behind this one. But since she had no choice but to push on, Batmare pressed her hoof against the door and prepared to open it as the fears returned in a quick whisper. 'What if he doesn't love me?' She shook her head and refused to let her own emotions come before the mission to save her father, especially since it was her father. So as she locked those fears away to deal with later, she threw open the door and walked inside.