//------------------------------// // Of Course It's a Trap // Story: It Runs In The Family // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// The first thing that Batmare had to do upon entering the room was to shield her eyes from the glaring light, which nearly blinded her as she entered. The moment she could see again her first action was to immediately take up a defensive stance to protect her and Luna, who was still shielding her eyes from the light. And she did so not a moment too soon, as twin knives came flying at her and the princess, knives that Batmare deflected with her gauntlets while glaring at the ponies who threw them. "I wondered if I would run into more of you here," Batmare said with a snarl as she glared at the two silver cloaked figures that stood across from her in the odd room. The room wasn't odd in design or color, but by the fact that there were ten thrones placed throughout the room in odd locations, although one of the thrones was shattered. Batmare narrowed her eyes as the cowl began to scan the two silver cloaked ponies in front of her, telling her what her eyes couldn't already discern. One of the two had his hood down and was bigger than she was, but not by much. He was missing an eye and had a smile on his face that seemed completely fake. Next to him was a small mare that was a bit shorter than Batmare and had her face completely covered, so that all Batmare could see was darkness. "Demon Spawn." "Oh I heard that you were a smart one Batmare, but to think you would do something so predictable as to come in the side entrance is a bit of a disappointment, isn't it my sweet?" the stallion asked the mare with a chuckle, his creepy smile growing even wider when the mare didn't answer him. "Oh you are quiet right as always, but we mustn't be rude to our guests, especially when one of them is a princess. Would either of you like some tea?" he asked with a smile as he pulled out a small teapot from under his cloak. Luna scowled at the tea and stepped forward, glaring at the two. "You are both Demon Spawn, correct? Then by the authority of the twin sisters of Canterlot, I place the two of you under arrest," Luna said as she pointed her horn at both of them. "Come quietly if you wish to live." The stallion sighed and reached under his coat once again, bringing out a small cup into which he began to pour tea. "See, this is why I never invite princesses to my parties, they always are such killjoys," he said with a sigh as he placed the teapot on the table behind him and gently blew on the steaming tea. "I just don't know what to do with them. What? No, you can't be serious, that's just not done!" he exclaimed in shock at his partner, who hadn't moved a muscle or said a word since the two had entered the room. "Hmm, you may have a point, but it seems a bit violent. No, you're right. It is the only course of action." "What are you yammering on about?!" Luna asked with a bit of a growl as she started up her magic. "Come quietly or-" Luna never saw the mare move as twin blades came out from under her cloak, while she launched herself at the princess with such speed that even Rainbow Dash would be amazed. Fortunately for the princess, Batmare had been waiting for one of them to make a move and placed herself between the pony and the princess, catching both of the blades on her gauntlets. "Wrong move," Batmare said with a smirk as she turned up the power on the gauntlets, sending electricity coursing through the pony. But much to Batmare's surprise, the pony barely even moved despite the fact that it was being shocked. Instead, it kicked Batmare back before charging at her again with both blades gleaming. While the two began to fight, Luna looked back to the stallion who had just finished his tea. "Don't mind her, she doesn't really talk much. Actually, she doesn't do much of anything ever since she lost connection to most of her nervous system," he said as he placed the cup down on the table and smiled at Luna, who kept her horn pointed at his chest. "Of course, it makes her hard as bloody hell to stop in battle, but she's a downer when you are trying to have a conversation. She likes knives though, and she likes to slice others apart." "Why are you telling me this?" Luna asked as she fired a stunning spell at him, only to watch him stick out a hoof to intercept it. "Simple. Because you will be dead soon," he said as he began to walk towards her, his now blackening muscles ripping through his coat as he smiled with pointed teeth. "Me, on the other hoof, I always prefer a cup of tea before a battle. It really helps to get me...pumped." Luna yelled in shock when he let out a roar and charged at her, now being her size as well as having glowing red eyes. She fired another spell into him, but all it did was make him smile as he barreled into her, knocking Luna over as he came to a stop and looked down at her. "Now I am a gentlecolt of course, so I will give you the chance to just lay down and die. It is a lot less painful than the other choice." "Go to Tarturus!" Luna snarled as she flew into the air and began to fire spell after spell into him, each one with a different effect and ability. Yet each one proved as futile as the first because the stallion simply walked through each attack, smiling his insane smile at Luna the entire time. While the two of them continued to battle, Batmare found herself being placed into a predicament that forced her to use all of her martial arts knowledge and training to survive. Her opponent was just as skilled as she was and far more deadly, forcing Batmare to adjust her tactics. "Even if you can't feel my blows, I can still knock you out cold," Batmare said as she blocked an attempt to stab her. The mare she fought said nothing but continued trying to attack, looking for any chinks in Batmare's armor to land a killing shot. Batmare had the opposite problem, as she was constantly having to fight in a way that prevented her from killing her foe...and stop her foe from getting herself killed. Every time Batmare tried a nerve attack or a match-ending blow, the mare would put herself in a position where the blow might kill her, forcing Batmare to either stop the attack or hold back. "I have to stop this pressure or else I'll be quickly beaten,' Batmare thought with a growl as she dropped a smoke pellet and backed away, taking a moment to regain her composure. "You know how I work, don't you," Batmare said with certainty, watching the way the mare took up a different stance to match each one that she took. "And you also know that I don't want to kill, so you constantly put yourself in killing situations, knowing that I'd hold back. I have to admit, I never thought I'd fight a foe who would try to get themselves killed in a fight with me." The mare said nothing but instead resumed her attack, forcing Batmare to go on the defensive once again. Across the room, Luna was getting smacked around fairly fiercely. As she forced herself back up to her hooves, she growled and decided that she had suffered enough. "Time to end this," she said with a growl as she fired a spell through the roof of the facility, smiling at the stallion across from her who simply watched the spell explode in the sky with a raised eyebrow. "And what was the point of that, my dear Luna?" he asked her. "That was the call to my Dark Knights that were waiting outside of the base, waiting for my signal to come in here and arrest all of you," Luna said with a smug smile as she waited for her troops to come pouring in. Instead, all she got was a chuckle from the stallion who shook his head once he was done laughing. "Oh Luna, you are far too predictable. Just be quiet and listen fro a moment." Luna narrowed her eyes at his words, but she did turn an ear to the air to listen as a faint sound reached her ears that caused her to gasp with horror. It was the sounds of ponies fighting and screaming. "We knew that we had been followed back here, so we took that time to set up a simple trap for you that you fell into splendidly. Don't you think it was odd how we are called the Demon Spawn, yet there wasn't a single demon here? That's because they're all out front, making friends with your Knights." Luna roared in rage as she rushed at her foe with her horn glowing at full power, the stallion laughing as he charged at her in response. But before either of them could collide, a smoke pellet hit the stallion in the face, causing him to curse as he backed up while trying to clear the smoke from his eyes. "Stay focused, Luna, and remember to keep your range," Batmare said as she caught the mare in an armlock and threw her over her shoulder, watching with a growl as she rolled in the air and landed on her hooves before rushing Batmare again. "You said yourself that your soldiers could hold their own against the demons, and you'll have to trust them to do so. Focus on the task at hoof right now." Luna growled but took Batmare's advice and took back to the sky to avoid being grabbed by the stallion, allowing Batmare to go back to focusing on her own problem. The mare had decided to start throwing daggers at Batmare who intercepted them with her own batarangs. One of her rangs slipped through and nailed the mare in the face, knocking her hood off and revealing her face. "Faust..." Batmare muttered to herself when she saw that the pony was missing an eye as well as well as her horn, the rest of her face covered in scars that didn't make her look much better. The mare never bothered to fix her hood as she went right back to fighting, this time pulling out daggers that had an odd green tint to them. The mare tried a face stab that Batmare barely dodged, allowing her to take a closer look at the daggers. "So, you use poison as well? This night just keeps getting worse and worse." Batmare looked over at Luna who was barely able to hold her own despite her great powers, and Batmare figured that she needed to end her fight quickly. "Time to end this," she growled was she pulled out twin batarangs that were also covered in a poison that Batman had said would knock out an elephant. She blocked an overhead strike and tried to stab the mare, smirking to herself when she nicked the pony in the side before kicking her in the chest to knock her back. "And that's it for you," Batmare said as the pony tried to rush her again, but staggered once before falling onto her face silently. "Which just leaves you." Luna sailed overhead as Batmare said this and slammed into the wall behind her, slowly sliding down to the floor. "I...might need your help with this one," Luna panted as she wiped away a trickle of blood from her mouth while the stallion walked over to his partner and looked down at her with a shake of his head. "She never knows when to show any caution. The curse of not feeling any pain I suppose," he said as he turned to face both of the dark clad warriors. "Now then ladies, are you ready to face me together now? Maybe you'll be able to put up a fight this time." Batmare snarled at his arrogance and whipped out two rangs that she threw towards his face. He simply chuckled and knocked them aside with ease before charging at the two. "Follow my lead," Batmare said to Luna as she ran forward and slid between the stallions legs, bringing her electrified hooves into a soft spot. The stallion howled as electricity coursed through his nether regions, leaving him open to Luna's magic. Luna lifted him with her horn and threw him into one of the thrones, shattering the throne as the stallion sailed into it. He slowly got back to his hooves with tears in his eyes as he looked back to his opponents, both of whom were making their next move. Batmare tossed twin concussion grenades into his face which exploded with enough force to knock him across the floor as well as scatter his thoughts. Yet much to the two ponies' surprise, the stallion shook his head and got back up, his wounds on his body starting to heal. "What is he?" Luna asked as she lifted the remains of one of the thrones and threw them towards the pony, growling as he swatted them away. "How can he be this strong without magic?" "Simple, my princess. We have found a way to trap the essence of demons inside a liquid form, so when we drink it, we become pseudo-demons ourselves," he explained as he charged into Batmare and lifted her with a hoof, only to let her go with a growl as she drove a batarang into his arm. He went down as Luna tossed more rubble into the back of his head and Batmare went to finish him with something in her belt labeled explosive gel, which she sprayed over his fallen form. "GET DOWN!" she yelled at Luna as she dove behind the remains of one of the thrones and pressed the trigger, detonating the gel with a massive explosion. The stallion's cry was lost to the roar of the explosion as Batmare was tossed backwards into the wall, with Luna having to use all of her magical might to keep from being blown back by the force of the blast. When the roar finally died down she lowered her shield to see the stallion laying in a blackened mess on the floor, apparently unable to regenerate his wounds. "Now then, have we beaten you enough or are you still a glutton?" Luna asked him with a smile, as his eyes looked up at her with rage. "Very well...I suppose you have beaten me," he said with a good natured chuckle after a few seconds, looking up at Batmare once she had walked over to him. "But it...will do you no good. We have...already all that we need. There is...no need...to finish you here. So...I will bid you...aediu." As he said this, his body began to dissolve into darkness until there was nothing left, leaving a confused Luna and a very worried Batmare. "Well, that didn't quite go as planned," Luna said with a small chuckle as she looked over at Batmare, who was looking at the floor lost in her thoughts. "He said that they already had all that they needed, which I can only assume means that he was talking about the ritual," Batmare deduced as she turned and ran towards the exit. "And that means somepony is in danger. We need to help the guards out with the battle that is going on outside and then we immediately need to head for Ponyville. Hurry, Princess!" Luna nodded and raced after Batmare, both of them bursting out of the facility to see that Luna had been right in saying that the Dark Knights were indeed capable of defending themselves. They had managed to set up a magical defensive shield that hurt the demons when they were forced to pass through it, leaving them a lot more manageable. With only a few demons left on the battlefield, Luna and Batmare wasted no time in helping the Knights mop up the remaining demons. "Thanks for the help, but we didn't need it," one of the Knights said after the last of the demons had fallen and the two ponies had rejoined them. "It's like we said, Batmare, we handle all kinds of weird things." "I'll apologize later, but right now we need to head back to Ponyville," Batmare said with enough urgency in her voice to stop the Knight from bragging any further. He nodded and started to round up the other Knights before they all headed to the ship, raising the anchor and sailing towards Ponyville. Batmare sat beside one of the windows, watching the rising sun with worry in her heart. She didn't know what the stallion had meant by 'they had what they needed', but if her guess was right then all of Equestria was in trouble. "What concerns you, my friend?" Luna asked as she sat down beside Batmare, removing her helmet and looking at Batmare with concern. "I'm worried about the ponies of Ponyville," she replied as she removed her cowl and placed it on the table in front of her, letting the warmth of the sun fall onto her face. "I know that there were a large number of other fillies to choose from on the list, but I have this horrible feeling that the one they went after was Pumpkin." "Why would you think that?" "Because, as Batman put it, everyone around him that he cares about seems to be in danger, even if they have nothing to do with the current case," Scootaloo said with a smirk as she remembered the full conversation, how Batman had been working on a string of robberies and how the conversation had ended with Superman being thrown through the cave by somepony named Mongul. Batmare was practically bouncing in her seat when Ponyville finally came into view, and the sight of it caused her heart to sink to an all time low. Even from a distance, she could still see the smoke billowing from the town, causing her to grab her cowl before she rushed towards the balcony of the ship to throw herself over the side. She spread her wings almost immediately and sped towards the town, fearing that the worst had come to pass. She landed in the middle of the main road, looking around in shock at the destruction. She was barely aware of the ponies looking at her until she needed to ask one of them a question "Where's Rainbow Dash?" she growled at the pony closest to her, who backed away in shock from the knight. She snarled and ran through the streets until she came across the ponies she feared to meet. The Cakes were standing in the street in front of their home, from which a pillar of smoke was billowing. Mrs. Cake was crying into her husband's arms when Batmare ran up to them. "What happened?" "We're not sure," Mr. Cake said with shock in his voice as he blankly looked at the knight. "Some ponies in white cloaks started attacking the town late last night and...Rainbow Dash tried to fight them off along with the rest of the Elements, but she got injured and..." He stopped talking when his wife pulled her head out of his arms and looked at the Dark Knight, tears streaming down her face. "They took her," she said in a whisper. Batmare's heart sank even further, but she had to confirm who it was. "Whom did they take?" "My daughter. Pumpkin." =====---===== Batman didn't like coming to this place when he could avoid it, but he liked coming here even less when he was summoned by a criminal. He was standing on an elevator heading down into the greatest prison that had ever been constructed for super-criminals, brought here by the fact that a certain foe of his had apparently gotten over her memory loss, which according to a certain doctor was impossible. Beside him stood a green figure who wore a blue cape with a red x on his chest, who silently looked at Batman when he believed the Bat wasn't looking. "Will you quit staring at me?" Batman eventually growled. The martian was not surprised that Batman knew he was being watched, little about Batman startled him at this point. But what he was concerned about was the way Batman was reacting to the summons. "If you have something to say, just get it out." "Why are you listening to her demands?" J'onn asked as the elevator reached its destination, opening to reveal the psychic and magic block of the prison, where all the mentalists and magicians were kept. "You know better than to be in a room alone with one of these criminals, yet you agreed to her terms without so much as bringing an anti-rang. What is going on here?" "Nothing that concerns you," Batman snapped with a glare. "And don't you try to read my mind to find out or I will use the flamethrower in my belt." J'onn backed away from Batman a bit as the two came to a stop outside the door labeled "Morgaine." Without a word to his ally, Batman opened the door and walked inside of the white room, where Morgaine sat in a chair at a white table. "Batman, come in," she said with a smile as Batman entered the room. "Please, have a seat. I have much to tell you." "Then get talking, because I don't have all night," Batman said with a growl as he remained standing. Morgaine sighed and crossed her arms before looking up at him. "I believe you do, especially when it involves my student...and your daughter." Batman's eyes narrowed as she said this, but he slowly pulled out the other chair and sat down, glaring into Morgaine's eyes as he did so. "Talk."