It Runs In The Family

by Onomonopia

Infiltration

Scootaloo threw open the door to the guest room that Luna had lent to her with a heavy sigh, tossing her bag with her armor in it into the first chair she could find, before she collapsed on the fancy bed that took up most of the room. She rolled onto her back and gazed up at the multicolored ceiling while still trying to make sense of what had just happened. Apparently, according to the sword that had predicted the destinies of the other ponies, her destiny was to be the greatest skate pony ever, instead of becoming the Batmare.

"So that's who I was supposed to be?" she asked herself with a small smirk, covering her face with one of her hooves. "Argh, it's so obvious now that I think about it. I always loved riding around on my scooter; how could I have not connected the dots?" But from that train of thought she went to another thought, about what the blade said would happen because she hadn't accepted her destiny: That all of Equestria would fall to the Demon Spawn and the elements of Harmony would be broken, signaling the end of the pony age.

"But that can't be right," she grumbled as she sat back up and started to pace around the room, looking at the floor with a frown. "Batman's destiny was overcome by his choice, so why can't I do the same?"

'Because you are a pony. And ponies cannot fight their destinies.'

"Bull. Batman showed me that destiny is just something ponies rely on to comfort themselves when they think they have no control of their lives," she said to herself with a snarl, but that little nagging voice refused to go away.

'But he was not a pony. He was a hero beyond anything the land had ever seen. But you, you are nothing more than a foal trying to be something she's not.'

"I've heard this before and my answer's still the same," Scootaloo said with a growl, but there was a bit of doubt in her voice this time. "I can forge my own destiny."

'Even without the Batman's love?' If there was one thing Scootaloo hated, it was the fact that these nagging voices knew everything that she tried to keep buried deep down inside, and dragged it to the surface. And this was a topic that she had tried to keep out of her mind as best she could, but nothing seemed to stay locked away.

"He does love me, he nearly gave his life to keep me safe," Scootaloo reminded the voice, but it snickered back at her.

'He gave his life to protect all the ponies, not just you. And that's what he does, he saves the lives of those who need it, no matter how they feel about him.'

"Maybe, but-"

'And he didn't say that he loved you; he didn't call you his daughter. He sees you as just another pony that he saved. Nothing more.'

"If that's true, then why does the charm still work?" she asked in one last attempt to try and repress the voice, but that too failed her.

'It worked for him, but for ten years it hasn't worked for you. Like the time you tried to stop that fire and you were burned terribly. Or when you threw yourself in front of others to protect them and you were the only one to make it out alive, but barely breathing. There is no need for any more proof. He does not care.'

"Shut up," she whispered to herself as she clamped her hooves to her ears and fell to her knees, trying to block out the mocking laughter that the voice echoed throughout her mind. "SHUT UP!"

"Um...are you alright?" Scootaloo uncovered her ears and looked to her side to see that Luna was standing in the doorway, looking at Scootaloo with concern in her eyes. Scootaloo nodded slightly and staggered up to her hooves, gently slowing down her breathing as the voice began to fade.

"Yeah...I'll be fine. What did you need, Princess?" she asked while trying to hide her emotions, but Luna could still hear the exhaustion and stress in her voice.

"We will be gathering in the war room in thirty minutes to discuss our battle strategy for tonight," Luna said. "Batmare is expected to be there, but if she is not physically able..."

"I'll be there. Don't worry." Luna wanted to say something else, but Scootaloo gave her a look that told Luna she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. So with a sad sigh, Luna turned to leave, letting Scootaloo sit back down on her bed and pull out the small charm that was supposed to keep her safe...so why did it bring her pain instead?

====---====

The Dark Knight's were used to weird and stressful situations in their line of work, especially when it involved things that went bump in the night. Everything from mind melders to eight-headed dragons were what they faced in their work, so it was fairly hard to surprise them. But that's exactly what Batmare did when she walked into the war room in full costume, gaining her the attention of both the ponies and bat-ponies that Luna employed. She watched them as their eyes widened and listened in as they started to whisper to each other, able to read their lips to "listen in" on what she couldn't hear.

"Holy buck, it's the real deal."

"Why do you sound surprised? It's been rumored for a while that the princesses work with Batmare, this just proves it."

"Yeah but...it's actually her." Batmare looked towards the guards in the black, Batman-like armor to quiet them a bit before turning towards a door as it opened and Princess Luna entered the room, looking at Batmare with a thin smile on her face.

"Glad to see you could make it," Luna said as she nodded to Batmare before turning to the rest of her guards with a raised eyebrow. "I thought I told all of you to be ready for action, not to talk about my guest who will be accompanying us tonight. Now gather around the board, we need to plan our strategy for the assault." The guards and Batmare gathered around a map of Equestria that was placed on a center table, but with a flash of her horn Luna transformed the map from two dimensional to three dimensional, allowing the ponies to get a better look at the terrain.

"This is where some of our best trackers have found the hideout of the Demon Spawn," Luna explained as she pointed her hoof at a part of Equestria that few ponies dared to traverse in this day and age, a wasteland that was supposed to be uninhabitable. "Near the center of this desert, we have discovered a large structure that looks like it could be an abandoned building from long ago...which would make it the perfect hiding place for our foes. Any questions so far?" When none of her guards spoke up, Luna nodded and turned her magic again to the map, creating the image of three airships heading towards the base.

"The plan is as follows: We will head to the structure in three airships that have been modified with special lead that will prevent any magic sensors from spotting us. And since we will be flying under the cover of the night, we most likely will not have to worry about being spotted. Once we arrive, a team consisting of myself, Batmare and two of you will join us in a side assault to sneak into the facility while the main forces keep the guards, if there are any, distracted on the outside."

"And how do you expect your forces to be able to deal with the demons that the Demon Spawn are able to...spawn?" Batmare asked, gaining her the attention of everypony in the room. "I could barely deal with one of them and that was with all my advanced gadgets and training. Regular guards will most likely be slaughtered."

"You may not know it, but the Dark Knights have faced some of the most disturbing things in all of Equestria," one of the guards to Batmare's right said with a chuckle. "The reason the guards get a bad rap is because Celestia's guards are the ones that can't handle any threat, since rarely does anything attack during the day. We can handle demons just fine." Batmare knew that they had no idea what they were getting into, but she figured that they were too convinced that they could handle it to be talked out of going. So instead she simply shrugged and turned back to Luna, motioning her to continue.

"Once inside, the small team of four will head for the center of the complex where we hope to find whoever is in charge of the Demons," Luna continued as an image of four horses running through the complex appeared. "We will arrest them on sight and finally bring an end to the nightmare that they have cast on the land. That is the plan. Any questions?" This time all of the ponies looked to Batmare, waiting for her to speak up. When she said nothing, they all saluted Luna and headed to their stations, each one of them preparing for the battle. Batmare turned to leave as well, but Luna stopped her before she could leave the room.

"Do you really think that my forces can't handle these foals?" Luna asked Batmare, with a tone that sounded like she was both offended and worried. Batmare sighed and looked at all the Dark Knights running to their stations, shaking her head.

"They're going to face a lot worse than just demons and some crazy ponies. I fought the corpse of a filly that was brought back from the dead with black magic as she tried to kill me. I've seen some crazy stuff as well, and that still gives me nightmares. I don't know if they're mentally ready for what we might find." Luna's face turned a bit green at that news, but she shook her head and continued to question the bat.

"Anything else about these freaks that you can tell us?"

"Yeah, the one I fought had cut off his own horn so he could be...perfect like Batman," Batmare said with a scowl, looking up at Luna to notice that she was confused. "These freaks are following Batman, or so they say. They believe that Batman was a sign for things to change, and that he showed the ponies that they no longer had to fear the oppression of the princesses or their magic. That those without horns or wings can be just as powerful as those with them. So don't be surprised if you come across pegasi missing wings or unicorns without horns." Luna turned a shade darker and had to lower her head for a second.

"That is terrible. How do you deal with things like this on such a regular basis?"

"Punches, kicks, and a lot of therapy," Batmare said with an impish smile as she started to head to where the airships were located. "We should probably head out now Princess; the night doesn't last forever."

"Then why does it feel like this one will?" Luna asked herself as she followed Batmare to the airships, not able to shake a nagging feeling that she was missing something, something vital. The guards were all waiting for the two of them as they reached the three massive airships, Batmare even raised her hidden eyebrows at how sleek they looked. She also noticed that all three of them had a magic drive in them, so she wasn't certain at how stealthy they could be with those rockets. She hoped that Luna had a plan and walked up a ramp that came down from one of the airships, looking over the edge a bit.

"I hope you feel comfortable in here," one of the guards said to her nervously as she entered, indicating all of the luxorious seating that the airship had. Batmare ignored him and sat down in one of the chairs, crossing her arms as she did so and closing her eyes--though none of the guards could tell through the ballistic material that covered the eye holes on her cowl. Luna ordered them to start flying as she sat down next to the bat and waved her guards away, wanting to talk to Batmare privately.

"How did entering the human world go?" Luna asked once the two of them were alone.

"It was weird, with loads of creatures to fight and I almost died. So it was a typical Friday," Batmare said with some humor, but it quickly died down when she remembered the charm around her neck. Luna noticed the sudden change in demeanor, but she wasn't sure if it was her place to ask about personal information between her and Batman. "So what do you plan to do with the Demon Spawn once we've caught them? You know that they are far too crazy to actually co-operate, and odds are that they'd rather die than talk."

"I do not know at the moment, but right now we just need to focus on catching them and putting an end to their operations," Luna said with a sigh, as she looked out the window at the moonlit landscape while it flew by her window, hating how the worst that Equestria had to offer came out during her night. Why did all the freaks always come out during the night? The Demon Spawn, manticores, the Batman. Why did they love the night so much? "After we are done with this task, I will talk to Celestia about what to do with them. From the information you gave us there are ten--

"Nine now."

"Nine of the ones in cloaks who seem to be the instigators behind the operations. I hope once those nine are gone, the rest of the organization will collapse." A knight came down to tell them that they were reaching their destination before he headed back up, leaving Luna and Batmare to prepare themselves for the battle to come. Luna began to slip into her Luna Liberator armor while Batmare sat down to begin meditating, clearing her mind of all distractions.

'Doesn't love you.'

'Shut up.'

Batmare stood up while Luna walked by her with a nod, and the both of them headed to the bow of the ship where they were both greeted by a number of salutes as they walked by to the front. From what Batmare could see with her newly-installed detective vision, the facility was in front of them in a canyon, fitting the exact description of what the Dark Knights had found. The ship's engines came to a stop and the airship slowly glided into the canyon, with all the ponies onboard holding their breath in anticipation of whether they'd be spotted or not. A collective sigh escaped them when all stayed quiet and the ship touched down away from the base without a fuss being raised. Once the ship had landed, Luna and her guards all headed to the exit, where she turned and gave her orders one last time.

"Alright, first up Batmare, myself; Shadowscar and Whisperingwind will come with me into the base through the side entrance. The rest of you are to wait on standby until either I give the signal or you hear the sounds of battle. Whichever it is, your orders are to storm the base and bring down anypony inside. Am I clear?" The Dark Knights all saluted in response and Luna turned to the darkness that was the wasteland in front of her with Batmare, looking up at the clouds that she had hidden her moon with. "Move out." Batmare shot out of the ship with her detective vision scanning every place where a possible trap might have been laid, but spotted nothing that would harm them. She nodded to Luna who told the two with her to move and the three ponies soon joined Batmare, who had already reached the side entrance where a lone door stood.

"Hold," Batmare said as she reached into her utility belt and pulled out a gift from Batman, a lock pick that used a small laser beam inside of metal. She flicked the device on and slowly cut a hole in the lock, removing the missing lock silently once she had cut through it. She gently pushed the door open, flinching a little when it squeaked before motioning the group to follow her. The four of them silently made their way through the empty corridors, which Batmare noticed were devoid of both ponies and light, something that she didn't like. The first real obstacle that the group faced was a path that branched off in two directions with no real indication of which way was the right way.

"What do we do?" Luna whispered to Batmare, who thought to herself for a second before she pointed at the two guards and motioned for them to go down the path on the right. The two saluted and silently flew down the path, leaving Luna and Batmare to go left. "Shouldn't I have gone with one of the guards instead? To keep them safe?" Luna asked.

"I sent them down the path that was far away from where we want to go," Batmare whispered back as she moved. "I am keeping them safe." The duo made their way down the hallway until they reached the opening to a large room. Batmare motioned for Luna to stop and quietly rolled into the room to take cover behind a desk, where she slowly peeked her head out from around its corner to get a better look of the room. It looked like another one of the chambers that had housed the captured ponies, except this one was empty. But the blood stains on the floor told her that she was already too late. But what really caught her eye was another computer in the center of the room.

"What is this?" Luna whispered to Batmare once she had been given the 'all clear' and joined her friend by the computer. "Is this the...computer that Batman and you both have?"

"Yes, but they shouldn't have this level of technology yet," Batmare said with a frown as she examined every inch of the computer for clues. It had been cleaned of hoofprints and the files had all been deleted, leaving her very little. All she could find was a logo on the side that read, "Lexcorp." "But if they do have it, it doesn't bode well for us. Let's keep moving." The two walked out of the door on the other end of the room to find another hallway. But unlike the last one, this one had lights on the floor that seemed to point to the end of it, which made Batmare very nervous. But with no other way to go, the two slowly began to walk down the hallway, both of them on guard for any tricks or traps that they might run across.

"Get ready, we don't know what's at the end of this hallway," Batmare warned Luna as she started up her electric gauntlets, letting the electricity crackle along them. Luna nodded and began to charge her horn, letting her magic cast a light down the hallway. The two walked to the end of the hallway to the final door that stood before them, both of them coming to a stop before it as they both readied themselves for what they were both certain was a fight.

"Are you ready for this?" Luna asked Batmare with a bit of concern, remembering her episode earlier. But her worries were replaced by fear as Batmare turned towards the Princess with a dark smile on her face.

"Always." Then Batmare opened the door and both of them walked forward into the light.

Comments

[Clayton the hunter]

Lexcorp

Well,fuck.

[Sirjadan13]

4084425 My thoughts exactly.

[defunct321]

Hey, Scootaloo, Batman didn't defeat his destiny. Margaine did kill him, conquer Canterlot, and open a portal to earth. For ten seconds before he came back alive and defeated her. My question, though, is if none of the others had different destinies, including batman, is Scootaloo going to retire from being Batmare and become a scooter superstar? Also, what moments from their destinies does the sword show? From Batman's, we can see it's not a set few seconds from exactly twenty years in the future, so maybe whatever moment they had the biggest impact on the world?

Also, give me Discord! I want to know what in tartarus he's been doing, even if it's only an off-hoofed comment from Fluttershy sawing he's on vacation in Zebrica. He's too big of a player to not be involved in this. Although it would be funny for him to come and using his graying ability of his on a demon, turning it good, because it reverses the key aspect of ones personality and therefore giving a demon a keyly nice personality, solving the whole problem. Also, in my headcanon, my equivalent of the silver mare was the one who created Discord, so it would be interesting in this if they knew each other.

[damnaion]

i see luther i think that right mear.
any way good chapter

[Lightoller]

Ah, cliffhanger...we meet again.

[Onomonopia]

4084570
Technically Batman didn't die, he was just mortally injured. The portal almost opened, but Trixie stopped it in time. And Morgaine's forces had been defeated so she never really took over. As for Discord, he might show up. Maybe.

[Kenshinryuu]

If Luthor is involved... have Superman smash his side of the operation while Batman comes to help Scootaloo.

[Kenshinryuu]

4084570 I agree with the Discord bit... but I also would like to see him just messing with the Demon Spawn, substituting items for their rituals that cause the rituals to blow up in their faces. Or make cut off wings and horns regrow rapidly. But turning a demon nice would be a good touch.

[Nano6243]

Well, with Lexcorp getting involved, it's obvious that either Lex got information from Morgaine, somehow, and was able to "establish a connection", or some Demon Spawn attempted to gain access to Batman's universe, and succeeded. Or perhaps it's something different, and I missed something from Trixie's side.

Also, Scootaloo is definitely going to need to cast away all of her doubts if she wants to become an effective Batmare. Otherwise, she'll become distracted, and won't fight as effectively. It's a good thing, then, that Batman is probably going to do something involving Equestria (if what Superman said about Morgaine means anything.)

The plot thickens. (I meant the story plot, not the other kind. I apologize in advance if you think I insulted your figure. )

[Uzume Tennouboshi]

Damn, Lex Luthor's been supplying the Demon Spawn with their technology?

And they were too late to stop the sixth sacrifice...hopefully, it wasn't Pumpkin Cake.

[FleetlordAvatar]

"Lexcorp."

Either Luthor is branching out or someone in The Secret Society knows about Equestria.

[Silentwoodfire]

4084697
I have to be honest with you...when comparing Batmans gallery to what Discord is capable of.. I cant help but feel that Discord is...laughably out of his league. The thought that's most prevalent in my mind is how much of a ROOKIE he is compared to the likes of the Joker and the like.

[JustAnotherRandomFan]

Something I hope will happen, a tall human walking in, and him singing this song to Batmare and the Demon Spawn.

[Gobeman]

DANG IT LEX!

[Jonny Bench]

How does lex manage to do this everytime

[DerpTape]

"Are you ready for this?" Luna asked Batmare with a bit of concern, remembering her episode earlier.