• Published 28th Dec 2013
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It Runs In The Family - Onomonopia

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A Father's Duty

Azarock took the initative against the three of them by throwing his winged self right into the center of them, using his tail to knock Robin across the castle park, while Batmare and Batman both threw whatever explosives they still had left with little effect.

"Batmare, aim for the head," Batman ordered as he leapt onto the creature's back and placed explosive gel there, flipping onto Azarock's head and kicking him in the nose. Azarock countered by grabbing Batman in one of his giant claws, and he slowly began to crush him with a dark smile. Batman responded with a smile of his own and pressed the detonation button on his gel, blowing a hole in the back of the demon who howled with pain as he dropped Batman.

"You are so going to pay for that!" Robin roared as she jumped into the air over Azarock and dove down staff first. Unfortunately for her, Azarock grabbed the staff and swung both it and Robin into Batman, knocking them both off their feet.

"You need to hide. NOW!" Batmare roared at Pumpkin as she pulled out her second to last batarang and threw it for all she was worth, which wasn't a lot judging from the way the projectile shattered against the demon like it was nothing. Azarock roared and charged towards Batmare, but a grapple wrapped itself around the demon's neck and forced it to stop.

"You will not touch her," Batman said with cold venom in his voice as he pulled back with all his strength against the demon, able to force it to halt, even though it was much stronger than he was. Azarock turned its head and fired a beam of darkness from its mouth towards the bat, which would have probably killed him if Robin hadn't jumped in front of him with her bullet proof shield out. Even though she intercepted the attack with a titanium shield, she was still thrown across the garden and into a tree, where she slid down the side of it with a groan. Batmare snarled and activated the electric shock feature on his grapple, sending enough voltage into the demon to drop a Killer Croc.

"That won't work!" Batmare yelled to Batman as Azarock tanked through the electric shock, turning towards Batman with a snarl. Batman released the grapple and dove out of the way as Azarock threw a chunk of the ground at him, rolling to his feet next to Batmare. "He seems to be immune to electricity or any other element for that matter. Nothing I hit him with works."

"Do you have a plan then?" Batman asked before throwing down a smoke pellet to blind the demon, leaping into the air and driving his elbow into the demon's head, sending it staggering back. "Physical attacks only seem to slow it down and my Beyond suit won't hold up against any of the dark energy. What do we do?"

"Why are you asking me?" Batmare asked in confusion. "You're the hero--you're the one who has done this for years! You should be the one-!"

"Your world, your rules," Batman responded before she could finish, pulling out a gadget that he hadn't busted out in a while. It was like his grapple gun, but it could bring two objects together as well with painful force. He fired the first claw into Azarock's face and then the second into one of the park benches, releasing the trigger to send the two hurdling towards each other with a satisfying crunch when they collided. "I never did thank Deathstroke for this. But as I was saying, you know more about what's going on than I do. Therefore, you're in charge." Batmare looked from him to the demon that was getting up, trying to keep her fears suppressed as best she could. This was the situation she feared, having all this pressure on her with thousands of lives on the line. What's more, this was her biggest chance to earn her father's approval and she couldn't mess it up. She had to think.

"Okay, I think I may have a plan," she said out of desperation, not noticing as a beat up Robin re-joined them. "Azarock likes to adjust his size depending on what he's fighting. So we keep him confused, each of us attacking him in different turns." Batman's eyes narrowed a bit when he reviewed her plan in his head before he took up another fighting stance.

"Alright Batmare, I trust you," he said before he threw himself back into the fray, throwing another smoke pellet into Azarock's face and following up with a hammer blow to the teeth.

"Payback time," Robin said with a smile as she spun her staff twice, rushing up and pole vaulting over the demon so that she could land behind it and sweep its back legs, leaving it open for a beat down from Batman. While the two of them fought, Batmare watched how Azarock responded with worry in her heart.

'Okay, so far I seem to be right and he does adjust his size to whomever he's fighting. But why does he do that when he could go giant and crush us all?' she asked herself before a massive blast of white energy went off on the castle's roof. 'Of course, he's saving his real power for his arch-enemy and he doesn't want to waste his power on us. His reservations will be our advantage.' But just as Batmare thought this, Azarock roared with rage and clasped his claws together, sending out a shockwave that knocked both Batman and Robin to the ground. He then slammed his claws into the ground that sent out another shockwave that sent both of them flying back towards Batmare.

"What's going on?" Robin asked as she got back to her feet, looking at the now glowing Azarock with worry.

"He's stopped holding back," Batman said with a growl as he fired up his own electric gauntlets, knowing that they were in trouble now.

"You knew he was holding back?" Batmare asked him. "How did you...right, it's you. So what do we do? Do we call for backup? Ask the members of the Justice League to help? Superman?"

"No time," Batman said as he looked up to the sky with a frown, not liking what he was seeing. "Does that look familiar to you?" Batmare looked up into the sky and her jaw nearly dropped. There were a number of spirals that swirled in the sky, seemingly getting larger with each rotation. "That looks like the portal that Morgaine was trying to open the last time she came here."

"So it's not a good thing then?" Robin asked before cowering from the glare that Batman gave her as his answer.

"So how do we stop it?" Batmare asked before another blast of darkness from Azarock sent them all reeling back. Batman kicked up and went back to fighting with the demon while Robin and Batmare struggled back up.

'Batmare, can you hear me?' a voice that came out of nowhere said to Batmare.

"What the...Trixie, is that you?" Batmare asked as she looked around.

'Yes, and we don't have much time. Morgaine has figured out that the twin demons plan to open the portal she wished to open and unleash their forces upon the land. I have a spell that can stop it, but it will take time to do so. But when it activates, you have to get Azarock into the light that will be cast.'

"...What's the catch Trixie, I can hear the hesitation in your voice." Trixie went silent for a few seconds, during that time Robin and Batman both did their best to hurt the demon again, Batman using a combo of freeze grenades and explosive gel to try to damage it, while Robin went for the simpler method of 'beat it with a staff'. Neither method worked and both of them were thrown off by the demon.

'The catch is that this spell will stop the demons, but at the cost of the user's life,' Trixie's voice said with sorrow on the end.

"Then don't use it!" Batmare yelled as she was grabbed by Azarock, who stretched his arm farther beyond what they had seen it stretch before. It threw her into the air before catching her again and slamming her into the ground, breaking even more of her ribs. Batman roared in fury as he pulled out two more batarangs and dug them into Azarock's eyes, the demon howling in pain as it ran charged into a wall to try and knock Batman off, with no success.

'Batmare, we are both losing this fight badly, even with our parents helping us out,' Trixie reminded her as the sound of both Sombra and Morgaine being blasted in the backround reached Batmare's ears. 'And it won't stop with us. If we do not send them back now, their armies will swarm upon the land and consume everything, with no chance of stopping them. This could be our only chance.' Batmare closed her eyes as both physical and emotional pain stormed in her. On one hoof, she didn't want Trixie to go this way, especially since Equestria still hated her. But on the other...

"Do it," Batmare whispered with tears in her eyes as she got back up, watching as Azarock threw Batman off his back and slammed Robin into a wall with its tail. The demon turned to face Batmare, both of them waiting for the other to make the first move. Batmare went first as she pulled out her grapnel gun and fired it into Azarock's eye, sending the creature roaring back. Azarock retaliated with a blast of darkness that Batmare couldn't completely avoid, causing her to scream with pain as half of her face felt like it was an inferno as the darkness ripped away her cowl. She fell to the ground with a groan and struggled to get back up, barely able to see out of her left eye. But what she could see was a small filly that ran to her side and lifted her onto the filly's back before taking her behind some bushes.

"Don't worry Batmare, you're safe here," the filly said with a smile as she looked at Batmare, slow realization dawning on her face as she saw the side of Batmare's face that wasn't covered. "...Scootaloo? You're Batmare?...Of course you're Batmare, you were the only pony that was close enough to Batman to take on his mantle. And the way you taught me--Argh I was so stupid!"

"Pumpkin...what are you doing here?" Batmare panted as she slowly struggled to her hooves, trying to block out the pain that had consumed half her face. "I thought that I told you to run..."

"You did, but then I saw how badly the fight was going and I had to come back to help," Pumpkin explained as she helped Batmare get back up. Batmare looked at the battlefield with her good eye and saw that Robin was laying unconscious on the ground, while Batman continued to fight on. His black suit was torn and the red bat had been ripped in half, but he still had the will to fight flashing in his eyes.

"Thank you for helping me, but this is something that you cannot help with," Batmare panted as she forced herself to run back to the battlefield. "Stay here and no matter what happens don't interfere." Before she re-engaged the fight, Batmare reached up to her neck and felt where she kept her good luck charm, praying that it would work. 'As long as the giver of this charm loves the holder, then they shall be protected from all harm,' she thought to herself as she threw herself into one of Azarock's back legs. 'As long as Dad loves me, I can't lose!' Azarock responded to that thought by swatting Batmare away with a back hand before he grabbed Batman and threw him into the side of a tree.

'GET UP!' Batmare roared in silent fury as she struggled to lift her head, barely managing to get herself to look up as a dark shadow fell over her. She looked up in time to see a massive foot begin to come down on her...before it came to a stop against a barrier of silver. Azarock looked down in confusion before a blast of silver magic knocked him off of Batmare, who felt a sense of calm spread throughout her body as silver energy began to heal her. She got back up to see the silver mare standing next to her, focusing her magic on the demon.

"I wondered if you would show up," Batmare growled as Azarock fired another blast of darkness that the silver mare had to block with her shield. "What took you?"

'I cannot assist both you and the other champion at the same time,' the mare said as she struggled to keep the blast of magic from killing Bamtare. 'And I may need to help her again in a moment, judging from how her fight was going. Where is the Batman?' Batmare pointed to the tree that Batman had been thrown into, while the silver mare turned her head slightly to see where he was. And the moment that Azarock saw his foe take her focus off of him was when he decided to strike. He sent his tail through the ground and caused it to shoot out underneath of the silver mare, knocking both her and Batmare over and breaking her shield. The moment the shield was down he fired off his most powerful darkness beam at the silver mare, who was quickly engulfed in the darkness.

"NO!" Batmare yelled as the attack ended. All that was left of the silver mare was a small silver sphere that lay untouched on the ground. Batmare got back up and kicked the sphere towards the bushes and away from the battle, leaving just her and Azarock standing. "So it's just you and me left, is it?" Batmare asked the demon as she tried to keep her fears buried, images of her destiny beginning to flash through her mind: Her dead, and everypony she loved or cared about dying with her...that she would fail. Azarock sensed her momentary weakness and lunged at her, pinning her to the ground with one claw while the other slashed at her armor, tearing a good chunk of it off on the first swipe. Before it could swing again, Batmare activated her sonic, screaming in pain as both she and the demon felt the sound tear their ears apart. Azarock threw her across the ground as it clamped its claws to its ears, Batmare was too tired to do anything besides turn the sonic off. She lifted her head to see the demon look at her with hate in its eyes, knowing what was coming next.

'I guess this is it,' she thought to herself as the demon drove all fours of its clawed limbs into the ground, taking aim at her with deadly precision. 'This is how it ends. I failed to protect Canterlot and Equestria...I couldn't even save my Dad. My destiny came true I guess...I'm going to die,' she thought as she closed her eyes, before she felt the charm pressing against her skin. 'Unless...the charm does protect me. I guess it's...my only hope.' Azarock roared in fury before he unleashed his most powerful blast towards her, leaving Batmare to wonder if the charm would protect her. She closed her eyes and waited for oblivion...only to find that no pain came to her, that she felt exactly the same as when she closed her eyes. But that would have meant...

'The charm worked!' she thought to herself with joy as a smile crossed her face, feeling the magic coursing through her. 'That means that Batman does love me! That means...' Her joy came to a stop when a smell reached her nose, a smell that had come from her on more than one occasion. It was the smell of burning flesh and fried armor. Then she heard the soft breathing that came when one was badly hurt or dying. And as she put the pieces together she opened her eyes and looked up to see...

"Dad?" she whispered weakly, her eyes widening in horror when she saw Batman standing in front of her, both arms outstretched as he stood rooted in place, the ground in front of him ripped apart form where Azarock's blast had torn the ground apart. His armor was smoldering and blood was trickling from his mouth. Tears began to well up in Batmare's eyes when she realized what he had done. He had thrown himself in front of the attack.

"Scootaloo...are you...alright...?" he asked her weakly before his legs gave out and he fell over on his face. Batmare couldn't say anything, but she dragged herself over to his side while tears began to stream from her eyes. Azarock roared and prepared to attack again, but a combination of silver magic and metal staff to the face stopped it from doing so.

"Why did you do that?" Batmare sobbed as she struggled to get his cowl off, having to tear it from the suit before it would come off, leaving her only more heartbroken when she saw his face. It was covered in burns and cuts, with blood running down the side of it. But the worse part was his eyes, eyes that didn't hold much life in them.

"Because you...were in danger..." he responded weakly, his breaths growing weaker and weaker with each one.

"You idiot," she sobbed as she reached inside of her suit and pulled out the charm, rolling him over so that he was laying on his back and could see him. "I still have the charm you gave me! It would have protected me from the blast! There was no need to-"

"It was...a risk...that I couldn't take," Batman wheezed with a bit of strength, wrapping his hand around Batmare's hoof. "There is...no risk...worth your life. No cost...too great to...protect you. Even...my own life is... a trifle...to keep you safe."

"Don't say that. You're not going to die," Batmare sobbed as Robin and the silver mare both got knocked back again by Azarock, both of them in rough shape having to fight the demon by themselves. "You've survived worse than this. You will survive again.

"All people...die eventually," Batman said as his black eyes started to fade a bit. "If I die...protecting you...then it is a death...I can accept. It's...my duty as a father...to keep you safe." Batmare choked up and couldn't say any more, all she could do was cry as Batman's breathing began to grow shallower and shallower.

'Batmare, this is Morgaine, can you hear me?' an all too familiar voice said in her head.

"The hell do you want?" Batmare snarled as she looked down at her dying father.

'The spell is ready. Can you get Azarock to step into the light?' Batmare lifted her head to see a giant pillar of light shoot out of the top of the castle, consuming anything that was close to it. She looked down at Batman with pain in her heart, wanting to stay by his side desperately.

"I'm not going to leave you," she said quietly to him as the tears began to well again. "I almost lost you once before. I can't do it again. I'm not strong enough"

"You...are strong, "he panted weakly. "So much...stronger...than I could ever be. But you...have to end this...have to stop this..."

"I won't leave you," she whispered. And then, using the last of his strength, Batman looked into Scootaloo's eyes, giving her a look that he never had given her before. He was batglaring at her.

"You will...because I...raised you to value life...to fight against evil...to know the value of sacrifice," he said again, this time his words barely making it out of his lips. "You...have to...because if you don't...who will?" Scootaloo looked down at him with tears streaming down her face, but she also knew that he was right. She gently kissed him on the forehead before she stood up and glared at the demon in front of her, who had swatted off Robin and the silver mare with ease.

"Don't worry, Dad. I'll be back quick," she said with a growl.

"Wait...Scootaloo, no matter what happens next...I'm proud to call you...my daughter," Batman said with a smile as he gently placed his hand on her shoulder. With those few words, Batman had managed to erase all of her fears and doubts about herself, giving her the strength to fight this final battle. He then clicked the front of his utility belt and handed it to Scootaloo, who grabbed it with a nod. "Go...get him." Batmare nodded with a smile, a single tear of happiness falling down her face.

"Stay alive," she whispered before charging back into the battle. Batman's head fell to the side as she said this, knowing that he was not going to be able to follow her request. And just as all vision began to fade from his eyes, he saw a hoof of silver next to his head.

"GRRRAAAAAHH!" Batmare roared as she charged at Azarock and reached inside of Batman's utility belt, throwing a number of grenades marked "for super-villains" into Azarock's face, knocking him backwards and closer towards the light. Batmare then activated her gauntlets again and slammed them into Azarock's face, gritting her teeth as each strike racked her body with pain.

'Even if it kills me, I have to stop him!' she roared in her mind as she continued to strike him again and again, each blow knocking him closer and closer to the light.

'So this is who you have chosen to be,' a mystical voice in her head said as she ducked a blow and fired a concussion grenade into Azarock's eyes, causing him to howl with pain. 'Despite it not being your special talent, you wish to protect all of Equestria...all life that needs it. Why?'

"Because it's who I am!" Batmare roared as she fired the REC into Azarock's chest multiple times, nearly having knocked the demon back to the light. "I choose who I want to be even if the universe is against me! That is what Batman taught me and that is who I want to be! Even if I have to die to show it!"

'And this is honestly who you are?'

"Honestly!" Batmare yelled as she put everything she had into one last attack, driving her entire body into Azarock's gut and flying him up into the air. She flew them both into the white light that was still storming on the roof of the castle, nearly blacking out as she did so, but a voice in the back of her head kept her going.

'And you figured nearly all this out without my help. Batman truly did show you how to choose your own path, didn't he?'

"I just need to be me and choose to be what I want to be, no matter what a sword or mark tells me," Batmare said with a smile as she continued to press forward. " And I made a promise on his grave that I would fight the forces of evil until the day I died. And that's the honest truth."

Both Batmare and Azarock could feel the magical energies of the portal begin to tear at them, both of them feeling as their entire beings would be sucked into the unknown.

Azarock, being the demon, was being dragged into the spiraling vortex of magic much faster than Batmare, already having lost half of his body to the vortex. In a last ditch effort to save himself, he reached out and grabbed Batmare, trying to drag her into the vortex with him. And then, with all of her remaining strength, Batmare struck Azarock in the face one last time.

"GO TO HELL!"

The blow was enough to force Azarock to let go, the result was he got completely sucked into the spiral. With all of her strength exhausted, all Batmare could do was collapse as the vortex began to suck her in as well. Before she closed her eyes, she could see that the white demon was getting sucked in as well, telling her that Trixie had prevailed.

'So that's it. We won,' she thought as she closed her eyes for the final time. 'Good. I'm...tired.' And with that thought, she let herself get sucked into the swirl of the vortex, smiling at the fact that she died saving the day. 'I'm truly my father's daughter.' And then everything went silver.

===---T---===

Both of Batmare's eyes opened in shock and she kicked up, landing on her hooves and growling at the black demon in front of her. Then, to her surprise, the white demon walked up beside it and placed a claw on its shoulder, causing the both of them to begin to merge.

"The hell do you think your doing?" Batmare asked as she reached for a batarang, only to realize she was out.

"They are fusing with each other, meaning that they are preparing to kill us." Batmare turned her head to the side and saw Trixie teleport beside her, one of her eyes covered in blood while the other glared at the demon. "These two are normally enemies, but they work together only as a last resort. And since the two of us, along with our families, pushed them back into their dimension..."

"They will use every trick they have," Batmare said as she took up a fighting stance. The area all around them was silver, a similar silver to the silver mare, but she couldn't focus on that for long as the demon roared and opened two holes in reality, one behind the ponies that led back to Equestria and another that led to the depths of Tartarus. "And we have to stop them, don't we?"

"We do, although I find it odd," Trixie said with a smile. "Nearly ten years ago, you and I were on the opposite sides of the line, and now we are working together to defeat a final foe. It amuses me."

"We may have been physically on the opposite side of the line, but your heart wasn't there," Batmare reminded her as the black and white demon began to advance. "You saved us then and you'll save us now."

"That's what a lot of creatures have been saying to me lately," Trixie said with a smile before she unleashed her full power into the beast, sending a symphony of magical power into its chest, causing it to skid backwards. A cyclone of fire and stone materialized from her horn and lifted the demon into the air, but with a roar it blew apart the cyclone and hurled itself at the two. Batmare responded with a grapnel to the chest that had electricity coursing through the cables, sending volts through the demon. But the creature barely felt the effects and teleported behind both the ponies, grabbing them by their necks and lifting them up. It prepared to snap their necks before a blast of silver tossed the demon to the ground and freed the two mares.

"Thanks for the save," Batmare said to the silver mare, who had appeared beside them. "But what do we do against that thing? We could barely handle the demons separated, but how can we beat them together?"

"See the two portals?" she asked Batmare, who looked behind her to see a portal that showed Canterlot. She then looked forward at another portal that showed a land of fire. "The one behind the demon is Tartarus and we have to get them in there. But it's going to be difficult."

"Trixie, we've fought creatures that Equestria didn't even know existed," Batmare said with a smile. "I think we can handle this." The twin demons roared and charged towards Batmare and Trixie, the latter unleashing her power once again into the demons. The magic wasn't enough to hurt the creature, but it was enough to slow it down. Trixie growled as Batmare began to throw whatever she had in her belt at the thing until it ran empty. Trixie looked over at Batmare with a frown until an idea came to her.

"Batmare, do you still have that anti-rang that you used?" she asked.

"Yeah?" Batmare asked before looking at the demon made almost entirely of magic. "Yeah, I do." Batmare reached into her belt and pulled out the last batarang, aiming it right at the center of the creature's head. "Fall." She threw the batarang with all her might, watching as the gift from her father flew on a true arc that nailed the demon in the center of its head, breaking through all of its magical shielding and causing it to roar in pain, giving Trixie the chance she needed to push the demon into the other portal. Both of them watched as the demon was sucked into the portal, roaring one last time before the portal closed. Trixie and Batmare both collapsed to the ground exhausted, each trying to ignore the pain.

"So, what happens now?" Batmare asked Trixie.

"Now, this dimension collapses and takes everything inside with it," she responded with a sigh.

"So this is it?"

"Yep, this is it."

"At least we died knowing we won," Batmare said as she closed her eyes.

"Yeah, at least we did," Trixie responded as everything went white.