//------------------------------// // Siege the Day // Story: It Runs In The Family // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// The sphere of darkness that surrounded Canterlot had grown in size in the short time the ponies had been away, with it now covering some of the mountainside as well as the city. Blackmane brought his ship to a halt in the air and engaged a hover feature that made even Batmare whistle with amazement. "Alrighty lass, let me see if I got this straight. You want me to fire the engine of my ship at full power towards a city that has thousands of ponies living in it, because you and I think it will work?" Blackmane asked with a devious grin. "This plan is as crazy as Discord. I like it." "Two things. One, drop the accent, it doesn't make you sound any cooler," Batmare said with a roll of her eyes. "Second, I am seventy-eight percent certain this plan will work without losing any lives, and that's a risk we have to take to help those who are trapped in the city." "This sounds like the craziest plan I have ever heard," Blackmane said with a smile as he turned his ship around so that engine was aimed right at the shadow barrier that surrounded the city. "Fortunately for you, I love crazy. FIRE THE ENGINE!" The whole ship shook as the engine fired at maximum power, straining the hover feature and letting a blast of blue energy erupt from the engine, which collided with the black barrier. The magic in the engine's fire began to send ripples across the barrier, which quickly turned into cracks that formed all along its surface. "I can't believe this is working," Twilight said with amazement as she watched the spectacle with Celestia and Luna. Blackmane's roar of laughter was nearly lost amongst the noise of the firing, but Batmare had been watching with careful eyes for a certain moment. "Alright, cut it there!" Batmare roared at him, his response being to frown at her before he cut the engine. "If we continued the pressure, the fire would blast through the shield and possibly kill some of the ponies on the other side." "So what do we do now?" he asked her as he looked at the fractured barrier. Batmare's response was to give him a dark smile. "Ramming speed." Blackmane's smile grew to match hers and he let out another hearty laugh as he spun the wheel as well as the entire ship around to face the barrier, reving up the engine once again. "PREPARE TO BE BOARDED!" he roared as he drove the ship straight towards the barrier, both princesses and crew members alike diving for any cover they could find before the ship collided with the shield. Batmare smiled again when the part they hit shattered completely with the rest of the barrier following suit in a manner of seconds. "Now we storm the city!" Blackmane drove the ship over the streets of Canterlot, allowing all three of the princesses to look over the side and see what had become of their city. There were plenty of dead in the streets with demons running amuck around the city. And that was something Celestia would not tolerate. "Luna. Twilight. With me!" she yelled as she looked to Batmare. "Batmare, I leave the Demon Spawn in your hooves. We will take care of their petty demons!" She dove off the side of the ship as she said this, with Twilight and Luna in hot pursuit. Blackmane brought his ship to a halt as he watched them dive and turned to his crew, who were all looking at him waiting for their orders. "Well, what are you waiting for?" he yelled at them as he raised his sword. "Those foals of princesses can't do it by themselves. GO HELP THEM!" The crew let out a roar of "HUZZAH" as they too grabbed ropes and tossed them over the side, descending into the streets to help fight in the battle. Blackmane winked at Batmare once nearly all the crew members had jumped off and turned the ship towards the castle, where he and Batmare both knew the Demon Spawn to be hiding. "So, you have a plan for getting inside or taking them out?" "With both hooves swinging," Batmare responded with a smile as she jumped off the side of the ship, spreading both wings as she headed towards the castle below. With her zoom feature, she could see that two ponies in white cloaks were standing outside of the castle by the closed doors. She landed in front of both of them with her cape swishing behind her as she looked up at them, watching as one of them began the familiar transformation into a psudeo-demon while the other pulled out a sickle and chain. "Oh trust me, neither of those are going to help you against me." "For the Bat--" the one with the demon blood began to yell before an armored hoof to the face shut him up. Using his face as a platform, she kicked off and flung herself at the pony with the sickle and chain, who did the impossible and caught Batmare in the chest with the bladed end of the weapon. Batmare managed to recover by rolling, although she was infuriated about the scratch mark across her suit. "Do you know what I had to go through to get this suit?" she roared as she flung herself towards the chain wielder, who naturally threw her chain towards Batmare to try and knock her out of the air. Batmare didn't fall for it this time and wrapped the chain around her fore hoof and flew past the pony, who lacked the common sense to let go. So he was dragged along as Batmare flew into the sky and headed back towards the demon pony, who had just gotten back to his hooves and looked up in time to see his partner come crashing into his face. "Like I said," Batmare said with a smirk as she bound the two up with the chain. "You're no match for me now." Batmare left them there as she pushed open the doors to the castle with an effort and slowly began to walk through the halls, keeping the sight of the dead guards from getting to her as she headed towards the throne room. The castle was in pretty good shape though, despite the fact that bodies lined the halls, as she began to walk up the stairs to the throne room, bracing herself for the worst...which is exactly what she got when she opened the door. "Hello there, Batmare," another pony with a white coat said to her, but this was a cloaked pony she recognized. This was the pony that she met back when she first found out about the demon spawn. Instigator. "The hell do you want?" Batmare asked with a growl as she let three batarangs fly, snarling when the pony threw up a barrier to protect himself. "The hell? I thought that all of you cut off your horns and wings?" "Oh, the more psycho of my cohorts do that, but I actually do not participate in that sort of thing" Instigator said. "However, with the power of the demons' blood, I can use a darker magic to some degree, and it's not the magic that you are used to." "Doesn't matter what magic you use, I'm still bringing you down," Batmare said with a growl when the sound of a voice she knew well reached her ears. "Put me down you morons! When Scootaloo gets here you are going to regret-GAH!" the voice of Pumpkin Cake rang throughout the castle, draining all the color from Batmare's face. Without another thought she spread her wings and started to fly out of the room, but the doors behind her slammed shut. "Sorry, but as you can probably guess I cannot allow you to..." Instigator began before a batarang that came dangerously close to his throat whizzed by him, causing him to yelp. "That could have killed me!" "Then, be thankful that I missed!" Batmare growled as she leapt into the air and drove her hoof into the front of his hooded face, knocking him to the floor while Batmare dove out the windows. She spread her wings and flew to the roof of the castle, the place her cowl was telling her Pumpkin's voice was coming from. She shot to the roof and landed in front of one more of the hooded ponies, glaring at him with venom in her eyes as she saw that he was the one holding Pumpkin. But what terrified her more than that was that he was holding a knife over her head, and had Pumpkin tied up in the middle of a ritual circle. "Not on your life!" Batmare roared as she threw one of the exploding batarangs in her belt into the pony's hoof, blowing it clean off. She brought the pony down with a blow to the throat before he could yell and quickly moved to Pumpkin, who looked up at her with amazement in her eyes. "Batmare?" the filly asked as Batmare used a rang to cut the ropes binding the filly. "I can't believe that you're here. What's going...?" "No time to be talking; we need to get you to someplace safe and fast," Batmare said before she noticed that the ritual circle under them was slightly beginning to glow. "No! I rescued her in time! the ritual should not-!" "Not be what my dear? Working?" Batmare and Pumpkin turned to see the Instigator standing there with a smile, a smile that they both could see since Bamtare kicked his hood off. He had gotten the knife, which he had inserted into his comrade who lay dead at his hooves. "You're right, it should not be working without the blood of the final filly. However, when I researched the ritual a bit more, I found that while it may not be complete without her, it can still be finished. And that," he began as he pulled the knife out of the ponies body and pointed it at himself. "Is what I plan to do." "NO!" Batmare yelled as he drove the knife into his own heart, blood beginning to pour from his mouth as he fell over. But before he died, he managed to get out his last words. "And with this, you are all doomed." Batmare and Pumpkin were both thrown back from a massive explosion that occurred the moment he uttered those words, the ritual having been finished. Batmare groaned as she got back up in time to see a pillar of dark energy coming out of the circle, her face growing white with fear when she saw a massive black claw grab onto the edge of the circle. "W-what is that thing?" Pumpkin asked as the creature began to emerge, allowing the two to look upon it with fear. Its head was completely made of dark magic, except for its teeth, which looked like red crystals that jutted out of its mouth. The rest of its body was made of the same dark magic in physical form, but was spikey and grotesque. "Azarock," Batmare said before she turned to Pumpkin. "Run. Run now and don't look back." "I'm not running! I can fight-" "You will run. This is a thing that cannot be fought by anypony," Batmare said as she took up a fighting stance, not liking the look of her chances. The creature had pulled itself out of the circle, showing Batmare that it was at least the size of a manticore. Pumpkin, for the first time since Scootaloo had started training her, decided to use her brain and ran off to the stairs that led into the castle. Batmare didn't know how safe she'd be in there, but she was safer in there than out here. 'Alright, if it's just the one demon I can think up a way to keep it away until the cowl finishes analyzing the ritual circle and let's me know how to..." And then to her horror a white claw reached up on the edge of the circle, and another being that looked like a white reflection of Azarock began to pull itself out of the circle, roaring once it was out and gaining the attention of the other. "Why are there two of them?" she asked herself in shock as the two beings collided on the roof, sending out a shockwave that nearly blew her off. The white one fired off a blast from its mouth that Azarock managed to dodge, the blast heading into the sky and piercing the side of the giant pirate ship that was floating there. Batmare watched in horror as the burning ship crashed into the side of the city before it fell to the land below. "That's it, you're both going down!" she roared as she pulled out twin batarangs and threw them at the twin beasts. But both batarangs shattered against the creatures that continued to fight with no knowledge of being hit. "Dammit, that didn't work," Batmare said with a growl as the white one punched Azaroth with such force that he flew off the roof and collided into another part of the castle, crashing through that and falling into the streets. With its counterpart gone, the white one turned to the dark clad warrior with a seething growl. Batmare barely had time to throw herself out of the way as it let loose another blast of pure white energy at her, causing another massive explosion. She rolled and got back to her hooves, bracing for another blast, but the creature turned away from her and towards the portal, placing a stone on it that was all too familiar. "A dimensional stone?" she asked in disbelief. 'RISE.' Batmare's fears continued to increase as another blast came from the portal, followed by hundreds of the type of demons she had been fighting, which came out of the portal and quickly rushed into the streets where the screaming grew only louder. With more and more of the demons pouring from the portal, the more Batmare realized that she was outmatched. She couldn't stop all of the demons, so she had to completely focus her efforts on the big demon. "I said that's enough!" Batmare roared once again as she switched to shock batarangs and threw them into the demon's face. This time they did gain her its attention, which she quickly realized was a bad thing. The creature looked towards her and roared with rage, appearing before her in a flash of white before a claw struck her in the side and knocked her across the roof. She coughed up a bit of blood as she struggled back to her hooves, watching out of the corner of her eye as the demon came charging towards her with both claws extended. 'Not today,' she thought before she pulled out her explosive gel and sprayed it onto her hooves, which she then charged up with electricity before she drove it into the demon's jaw. The resulting explosion of gel and electricity numbed her arm completely and threw her back, the demon roared in pain as it staggered back. Batmare got back to her hooves, scowling at the fact that her strongest attack had only stunned the creature. 'So I guess this is it,' she thought to herself as the demon came walking towards her and smiled, knowing that it had her trapped. But before it could strike her down, a blast of azure magic struck it in the side and sent it skidding across the rooftops. Batmare slowly turned her head towards the mare that had suddenly appeared on the roof, knowing that there was only one pony with magic like that. "Trixie."