Father of the Night

by Mandroid


Epilogue.

Yup, still a problem. You adjust your seating for the thousandth time this train ride.
"Oh come on..."
"You alright, 'Nonymous?" Applejack asks from the seat across from you.
"I'm -fine- AJ, it's just that these bloody seats -still- aren't designed for bipeds." you grumble.
AJ chuckles. "Well the ride to Canterlot's almost over."
"It's been two and a half hours."
"Almost over."
You grumble and roll your eyes, settling on Bruce looking out the window on the other side of the isle. It'd been a few months since that business in Goatham with Bruce's biological father. In that time the world had been turned on its head with questions. How could this maniac get that stuff? What were the guards doing? Won't someone think of the children? That sort of thing.
Every night Bruce came home with another ridiculous tale about someone or something he had to deal with that night and you probably wouldn't believe him if you hadn't Jokester with your own eyes.
It seemed the crazies were coming out of the woodwork now. It was all kinda weird.
"What is all this, Bruce?"
He turns to you. "I was summoned."
What?
"Why?"
"I don't know."
You groan and roll your eyes. "I'll need a decent dinner after this headache, I know it."
"You gonna show me one o' them fancy Canterlot dinin' halls you promised me?" AJ asks with a smirk.
You shrug. "Yeah, probably."
You -did- promise and it'd make a nice date.

Once the train gets to the station, you're quickly moved from t to a waiting carriage that makes a beeline for the royal palace.
You're ushered into a room with many ponies and others inside all milling about. You see stallions, mares, a few Diamond Dogs, two gryphons, a Minotaur in the corner with a small filly on his head, even a seapony in a large sphere filled with water. All of them were moving around a large table where both Princesses sat at the end.
"Uh...Bruce?"
He trots past you towards the table. "Please wait here, sir. This won't take long."
You look at AJ and the two of you just sort of...slink down against the wall.
Princess Celestia taps her hoof on the table. "Excuse me? May I call everypony over?"
The ponies and other races gather around the table as Celestia clears her throat.

-Music-
Celestia begins. "We live in trying and chaotic times. As many of you are aware, the City of Goatham city recently came under attack but was saved by the masked vigilante known as The Batmane."
She turns her head to Bruce. "Who is with us here today."
Those gathered remark in predictable ways to hearing that a child is a vigilante, Celestia silences them with a raised hoof.
"What that event marked is the dawn of an era where the old ways will not work. Since the event in Goatham, odd crimes and threats to peace and harmony have risen drastically."
The pair of gryphons grunt. "Asgard was almost burnt to the ground by a lava monster."
The assembled nod, the Diamond Dogs doing so enthusiastically. "Lantern Pack have to deal with angry spirit of Tirek at Midnight Castle!"
"Changelings in the desert." one mare spoke.
"Crab people!" exclaimed the seapony.
"Something tried to eat the sun." said one pony with a coif in his mane.
Celestia nods. "This world and the safety of its peoples are too important to leave to just one of us, and we cannot just leave each other to our own devices either."
She gestures to those gathered. "With that in mind, I call for a union. Let us all act in league with one another to preserve the harmony and that we all hold so dear and mete out justice to those who would threaten it."
The gryphons stand. "The Hawks stand with you." Diamond Dogs after them. "We help!" One mare lifts a hammer "Here here!" The filly and Minotaur nod in tandem.
Bruce stands. "You will have my aid."
Celestia smiles and looks to her sister. "Then let's get down to business."
You and AJ both shared an astonished look. Neither of you could properly place exactly what was happening.
But you knew it was gonna change the world.

-End