//------------------------------//
// A Dark Knight 
// Story: It Runs In The Family 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

'You did well.'

Scootaloo groaned once and opened her eyes, looking around in confusion when all she saw was whiteness. The only other thing that was there besides the white was the silver mare, and even she was hard to see against the background.

"Where am I?" she asked the silver mare, looking down at herself to notice that her batsuit was gone--and so were the multiple wounds she had suffered over the day. Then a slow realization came to her, and she looked at the silver mare with fear in her eyes. "Am I...dead?" The silver mare chuckled in response and shook her head.

'No.  Unlike the champion of lightning or the armored father, you survived your battle with the demon and do not require my aid,' the silver mare said calmly. 'As to where we are, this is my birth place, where I was created.'

"And why am I here?" Scootaloo asked.

'Because I wanted to say how proud I am of you,' the silver mare said with a hidden smile under her hood. 'You managed to overcome your fears and fight off a force that would have consumed the land. You proved yourself to be every bit the hero that I needed you to be.'

"To be fair, I had help," Scootaloo mumbled. "My Dad and Robin were a huge help in stopping Azarock, and even then I don't know if we would have been able to do it without the aid of Trixie and Morgaine...what happen to them by the way? Heck ,what happened to me?"

'Calm yourself. When you were sucked into the portal back to the demon's plane, I grabbed you with my magic and tethered you to this reality. The portal closed and you were safe, but in very bad shape. What happened to Trixie and Morgaine is something that you must find out for yourself once you return to your world. As for Pip, he and his crew are alive and managed to escape from the princesses. Canterlot will survive and most of the ponies are safe. But all of them know about the Knights and the magicians that saved them. Now please hurry and awaken.' Scootaloo wondered what she meant, when the white place vanished and was replaced with darkness.

====---====

A solitary figure sat next to the bedside in one of the hospital rooms, looking down at the mare that had changed his life so much in the ten years he had known her. The cowl that had defined thirty years of his life sat on the table next to him, its empty eye sockets looking at him as he sat over Scootaloo. He knew she would be fine; the doctors had confirmed that. What he didn't know was what he was going to say to her once she had awakened.

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" Batman looked over at the door, where six ponies that he knew all too well stood, some of them looking at him in disbelief, while a certain purple mare looked at him with rage. "Ten years. Ten years and not once did you bother to try and communicate with us, to let us know you survived. Why?"

"I had my reasons," he said back in a dark voice as he looked back down at Scootaloo, but Fluttershy walked up to him and tried to look into his eyes.

"We're still your friends, right? Then why...?" She backed off once as he gave her a look, but Rainbow Dash took offence to that and marched right up to him enraged. 

"Telling us was the least you could have done," she growled. "But what I hate you for, is not stopping Scootaloo from doing this! She believed that this was the only way to honor you, but you did nothing to stop her! If you had said something-"

"Then you and all of Equestria would have died by the demons' hands," he responded with his dark voice, causing Rainbow Dash to back up. "As for why I didn't tell her to stop...this was her choice, to become a protector. Do you think I like the idea of her going out and fighting against the unspeakable? But I knew that I couldn't stop her, so I did my best to prepare her, to give her the tools to fight her own crusade." The others turned to look at themselves as he sat back down, watching Scootaloo. "And I do worry. Make no mistake about that." The six waited a moment before they all walked up to him and wrapped their arms around him a hug.

"And we're glad that you're alive. Make no mistake about that," Twilight said as she and the others let go.

"Although I wish that your sense of style would have improved," Rarity teased.

"Oh...I think she's waking up girls!" a very excited Pinkie said as Scootaloo could feel herself beginning to awaken. The first sign that she was still alive was that she could still feel her body. The second sign that she was still alive was the intense pain that followed. She groaned once and opened her eyes, having to blink twice before she realized that she was looking into the eyes of a certain pink pony. 

"YES! She's alive!" Pinkie said in glee as she went in to give Scootaloo a bear hug, but a black gauntlet held her back.

"I wouldn't recommend giving the 'death hug' to somepony with six broken ribs," Batman advised, looking down at Scootaloo with concern. She looked up at him with surprise, but she ignored that feeling as she leapt out of bed to tackle him with a hug.

"You're alive!" she cried as she tightened the hug. Batman used his good arm to gently pat her on the back, the two holding the embrace for a minute before she let go. "But, how did you survive?"

"Our mutual friend saved me," he replied with a nod. "She knows how to heal wounds, I'll give her that much. How are you feeling? You shouldn't be moving around so much."

"I feel like I got beaten up, set on fire and dragged through an interdimensional portal by a demon," she responded with a dry chuckle. "So, an average Thursday--to us." A thin smile crossed Batman's face and he sat back in his chair with a sigh. Now that Scootaloo could look at him better, she noticed that there was a lot more gray in his hair than she remembered, and he looked more ragged. "Did I miss anything while I was out?"

"Celestia threw a celebration for the heroes that helped to save all of Equestria, but I decided to stay here since you were out," Batman explained as he leaned back with a sigh. "Trixie and her band of misfits did attend, but Twilight can fill you in later." He grunted as he tried to sit back up again, causing concern to flash in Scootaloo's eyes.

"You okay?"

"I think I might be getting a bit old for this," Batman groaned before he heard a faint gasp and looked at the six ponies standing beside him, their eyes looking at him in disbelief. "What?"

"I can't believe that the mighty Batman would ever admit out loud that he was getting weak," Twilight said with a playful smirk. "You must be going senile as well."

"You'd be feeling bad too if you had your back snapped, been set on fire, impaled by hooks, thrown through multiple buildings, shot at point blank..." Batman could see by their faces that he had already gotten his point across, so he allowed his smile to finish what he was saying as he looked back to Scootaloo, who was trying to sit up.

"Whoa there partner, you need to rest up," Applejack said as she tried to push Scootaloo back down, but Batman held the earth pony back.

"Trust me, you won't be able to stop a will like hers. Just let her up." AJ backed away and allowed Scootaloo up, the orange mare jumping to the ground with a grunt. She then looked up to Batman with some hesitation in her eyes that didn't go unnoticed by him. "Is something the matter?"

"It's nothing, just that I...can I speak to you in private?" she asked him. Batman noted the tone and nodded his head as he stood up. But before he could move a pink hoof placed itself on his chest to stop him from leaving.

"I just remembered something," Pinkie said with an angry glare at Batman. "You made a Pinkie promise with me that if we survived the battle at Canterlot you would go to my party. And you broke a Pinkie promise. Nopony breaks a Pinkie promise." The ponies all began to back away from Pinkie, whose mane had fallen flat and she was glaring murder from her eyes. The ponies didn't know what would happen next, but they weren't expecting what Batman did next: He placed his hand on Pinkie's shoulder.

"You're right Pinkie, I did make a promise," he said calmly, causing the other ponies to look at him in disbelief. "I promised that I would go and I--" A quick pinch of his fingers was all it took to send Pinkie collapsing to the floor, the snores that quickly followed told all in the room what he had done.

"You knocked her out?" Fluttershy asked. "Why would you do that?"

"Because," he said as he picked his cowl off the bed stand and put it on one-handed, before looking at Scootaloo. "Let's head to someplace more secluded. I don't know how long she'll stay out." Scootaloo nodded as Batman threw a smoke pellet on the floor, kicking up a cloud of smoke that caused the ponies in the room to cough. When the smoke cleared, they saw that both Batman and Scootaloo were gone.

"How do they do that?" Rarity asked, with Pinkie's snores being her only answer.

====---====

"So they did make a statue of me," Batman said with a smirk as he looked up at the statue in the cemetery, his eyes mostly focused on his grimacing face and how beat up he looked. "They really did a good job with my grimace. But I don't recall throwing myself in front of a filly."

"No, you threw yourself in front of three," Scootaloo said as she looked up at the statue as well, remembering all the times she had come here to talk to her "father." But now her actual father was right next to her, and this time she needed her father to talk back to her. "As for the grimace, you did that a lot while you were here."

"Force of habit," Batman said with a shrug before he looked down at Scootaloo. "Now what was it you wanted to talk to me about? Whatever it is has you rattled." Scootaloo took in a deep breath and tried to calm herself, wanting ever word to come out exactly the way she wanted it to.

"Do you love me?" She should have punched herself for the lack of control, but the words just came blurting out before she could stop them. Batman raised an eyebrow at her as she averted his gaze, terrified to find out the answer.

"Why do you ask?" Batman answered, not certain where this question had come from. Scootaloo looked at the ground for a few minutes before she finally worked up enough courage to answer.

"Because...I don't know if you do," she whispered. "And while my charm may work, I'm not sure if that's from my real parents' love or yours."

"Scootaloo, I-"

"I just don't know and it drives me crazy. Plus...you have all these other sidekicks and people that you train to fight alongside you, yet you so rarely train me. You saved me in so many ways, but I don't know how you truly feel about me. What do I mean to you?" Batman could feel the despair and desperation in her voice, forcing him to sigh. He really was bad at this. Batman grunted as he got onto one knee so he could look Scootaloo in the eyes, waiting until she looked into his before he answered.

"Scootaloo...I am a terrible parent, just ask Nigthwing or Robin when you see her again," Batman said with a thin smile. "But that is because I have spent so long with my emotions closed off, because of my parents death, that I...can't open up to anyone. Not truly." Scootaloo hung her head as he said this, trying to keep the tears back. "But, that doesn't mean I can't speak truthfully. And to answer your question...yes, I do love you." Scootaloo's head snapped back up and she looked into Batman's smiling face with disbelief for a brief moment before she threw herself into his arms, knocking the Dark Knight over, where she began to sob.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm just so relieved," she sobbed, stammering her words out as Batman patted her gently on the back. "It's just...after all you did for me, I had no idea whether or not you cared anymore. I thought since you were a hero, you must be used to ponies or people like me looking up to you."

"You'd be surprised at how wrong you are," Batman said as he gently pushed her back. "Also, you keep saying about all I did for you, but I never really got to say what you did for me." Scootaloo blinked the rest of her tears out of her eyes as Batman sat down with a sigh. "After the death of the Joker, I was in a dark place. Darker than I was used to. Then a report came in about how a certain enchantress was planning on destroying all of reality, and I was the only League member on standby that could take her. And then I ended up here and met you."

"Wait...are you saying that I helped you?" Scootaloo asked in disbelief.

"Like I said, I was in a dark place," Batman repeated. "And then I met you...you and your boundless optimism despite all the hurdles that had been thrown at you. When I met you in the forest all those years ago, I thought of you as nothing more than a person--pony--to be saved, nothing else. But then you sought me out again and I began to take an interest in you. You had the desire to win and the will to never give up. And that's when I decided to train you, to teach you so that you could heal. But the more I tried to heal you, the more you healed me. I felt...happier in this world when I was with you and the others than I have in a long time. You reminded me that I should try and look on the positives every once in a while, and that the world isn't always so dark."

"I taught you that?" Scootaloo asked.

"Yes, you did. You gave me a reason to smile again," Batman said with a smile of his own as he pulled her into a hug. "And for that I wanted to thank you...my daughter." Nothing in any world could have made Scootaloo happier at that moment than hearing those words. She fought to keep herself from breaking down as she hugged Batman back. They stayed like that for a moment before they both became aware of somepony watching them. They turned to see Pumpkin standing next to the Batman statue, motioning for Scootaloo to join her.

"I wonder what she wants?" Scootaloo asked.

"Go find out. I can wait," Batman said as he let her go. Scootaloo nodded and rushed over to Pumpkin while Batman stood back up, a frown crossing his face as he looked down to his right. "So you're the silver mare that saved me, even though I would have been fine. I see no marks were left when Azarock smacked you around."

'Correct. I am,' the silver mare said with a hint of warmth. 'You are welcome by the way.'

"For what?"

'For assisting you in your battle against Azarock and saving your life.'

"I could have beaten him if you hadn't interfered," Batman shot back. "And I've had much worse. I've died before; didn't stop me."

'I also saved Scootaloo from the collapse of the in-between world that would have dragged her into the demon's plane,' the silver mare reminded him. Batman went silent for a minute before he responded.

"...Thank you. So why are you bothering me now?" he asked her. This time the mare went silent before answering, and her answer was something Batman had heard before.

'There is a darkness coming. Not to this land which has already defeated this darkness, but to a land that must be protected,' the mare said cryptically. 'And I will need the power of a certain knight to help defeat it.'

"You said a certain knight. Does that mean that you don't necessarily need me?" Batman asked with a hint of suspicion.

'No, I am speaking about your daughter, even though I thought to use you as well,' the silver mare replied as she watched Scootaloo and Pumpkin talk. But I thought that you should be informed because it is your daughter, and that the Element that you follow the closest flows through her. But know this. I cannot save this world without her.' Batman thought about what she was saying, used to being whisked away to fight someone else's battle for them. And he knew nothing about this mare or if she was telling the truth. Yet she had a certain calming quality about her, like the way people felt when they were around Superman. 

"You said 'Element that flows through her,' but that I'm only close to it," Batman replied. "That means that she truly possesses its power."

'Correct, it does,' the silver mare responded. 'I just wanted to make sure that you were alright with her going into danger.' 

"I live in a world with gods, demons and everything else in between. Danger is a part of the job," Batman responded as he began to walk towards Scootaloo, before turning to look at the mare. "But there will always be a need for vengeance and a Knight...and I have no doubt that she can handle anything you throw at her. She's my daughter after all." The silver mare smiled before she vanished as Batman walked over to Scootaloo, Pumpkin nodding her head at him as she backed away, giving him a chance to speak to her one last time. 

"You need to go, don't you," Scootaloo said, already knowing his answer.

"I do. My world would fall apart without me if I were gone for too long. Plus, the League is probably already in trouble and need me to save them," Batman said with a smile as he looked down at Scootaloo, seeing himself in her. "Not to mention, there's the information about Lexcorp computers being in your land. I need to find out how Luthor was involved. But before I go, I just want you to know that I'm proud of you and who you've become. You're not me, and I never wanted you to become me, even if you wanted to. But I see that I didn't need to tell you that, because you figured it out on your own."

"I'm your daughter and that's all I'll ever need to be," Scootaloo said with a smile. Batman nodded and backed up, reaching in his belt for a smoke pellet. "Goodbye."

"Not goodbye. 'Til next time," he said before looking at Pumpkin. "Try listening to Scootaloo more. She really is a good teacher."

"I will," Pumpkin responded. Batman nodded and threw his smoke pellet into the ground. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.

"At least this time I got to say goodbye," Scootaloo said with a smile as Pumpkin hung her head a bit. But then both of them were startled by a blaze of pink that came to a stop beside them.

"WHERE IS HE?!" Pinkie roared into the sky, leaving Scootaloo to begin laughing, happier than she had been in a long time.

====--====

In the darkened streets of Mareiland, two ponies ran down the street with bags of bits in their hooves and a trail of blood following behind them, as well as ten members of the Royal Guard. The two of them raced as fast as they could for a ladder on the side of a building and quickly scaled it, racing across the rooftops as quickly as they could to escape the guards. The unicorn of the two used his spell to send out two copies of them down the side of the building, while the two real criminals escaped across the rooftops.

"I can't believe we escaped!" one of them said with a smile as he plopped the bag down and started to look at the loot.

"Keep your voice down! Somepony might hear us," his partner whispered.

"Yeah? Who's going to come after us?" the criminal asked as he started to count his money, before a grunt and a dragging sound came next to him. He spun to see that his partner was gone, leaving only his bag of money behind. The criminal got up and started to look around, his fears beginning to get the better of him. He screamed as his partner's broken body landed next to him and he started to look around everywhere. 

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" he screamed as he backed up, his body going cold as he bumped into something behind him and he heard the word,

"Here." 

And he let out one last scream before a black cape consumed him. Atop the rooftops a few minutes later, Batmare looked over the city with a small smile, thinking back on the past few days and how everything had changed. She felt like an idiot for thinking that Batman didn't care for her, but her fears did get the better of her from time to time. She also thought about how everypony's opinion of Trixie had changed as well, but Trixie had left before anypony could tell her that. Finally, there was her. She had to go through hell and nearly the end of the world to figure out who she wanted to be, but it had been worth it in the end.

'I am who I chose to be, not who I'm supposed to be,' she thought to herself as she looked to her flank where she knew no mark would ever be. 'And that's just the way it should be.' Then she heard a faint cry for help and dove off the building, heading off to save the day. 

=====---======

One word. How could one word have changed her world so much? The silver mare could still hear the lightning that had followed a single word that had ripped her world apart, as she looked out the window across the barren landscape, remembering the heroes that had fallen on the battlefield that day to the alien. The tower she stood in was the only surviving building from the battle and was the only place that nopony came to anymore, so it was safe. At least, until he found her again.

'I must not dwell in the past,' she thought to herself as she shook her head clear of memories and walked back into the tower. 'I must focus on gathering the six heroes. I do not have much time.' In the center of the room sat six pedestals, four of which were empty but two held objects of great power. One was an armband that had a green radiation symbol in the center and the other was a crown with a golden bolt of lightning on it. But she walked past those two and instead looked at an empty pedestal, knowing what was coming. Just as she had expected, a swarm of bats materialized from the air and swarmed the pedestal, covering it completely for a moment. When they vanished, a necklace was left on the pedestal with a black bat symbol in the center of it.

'I knew that she would be able to find herself,' the silver mare said before she turned back to look out the window. 'But will I be able to find the other three before he finds me? Sister watch over me.'