A Path No One Follows
Scootaloo was once again late for her job at the Horse Power gym, but this time instead of rolling his eyes at the tardiness that he had grown accustom to, Snowflake's eyes widened in horror when he saw Scootaloo enter the gym. She was covered in bruises and burns, not to mention stitches that covered the right side of her body. Her skin was black and blue, giving her the appearance of a pony that had been beaten badly. Finally, he looked into her eyes and saw only pain, although she was doing her best to repress it.
"I'm fine, alright?" Scootaloo said with a sigh, when Snowflake asked her about her injuries despite the fact that he could clearly see that she was not fine. Instead, she looked like she had been hit by a train.
"I just fell down my stairs this morning, it's nothing serious."
This time, he did roll his eyes at her obvious lie, but decided to say nothing more about the matter as he walked back to his desk. He couldn't force her to tell him the truth, and she was a stubborn mare at times--a good worker, but stubborn. Snowflake sat back down at his desk and pulled out a magazine to read, but found his attention being constantly drawn away by the sounds of Scootaloo struggling to complete her daily jobs. She was the strongest mare he had ever seen, but with the shape her body was in, even simple tasks such as lifting the bar bells or resetting the weight seemed to be too much for her--not that she'd ever admit it.
"Don't worry, I got this!" she yelled out to him as she started to put the weights back on the rack, straining her muscles as she tried her hardest to get it up. However, her muscles gave out and she dropped the weight on her hoof, causing her to yelp back in pain as she grabbed her hoof--while starting to swear. Some of the ponies chuckled to themselves at the sight of Scootaloo hopping around on one hoof, while others simply shook their heads with a sigh, this not being the first time they saw Scootaloo hurt herself on the job. Her cries of pain were interrupted by two of her closets friends walking into the gym.
"Sweetie Belle! Applebloom!" Scootaloo said with a smile as she hobbled over to her friends, who had just entered the gym, a huge smile on her face at the sight of them. The two of them, however, looked at her with sorrow, viewing her beaten body with tears in their eyes.
"Oh my Celestia, Scootaloo, what happened to you?" Sweetie Belle asked as she gave her friend a hug, not noticing that Scootaloo winced when she hugged her. "You look like some pony beat you senseless."
"Ha, more like an army of ponies," Scootaloo said with a chuckle, but her humor died down when Sweetie gave her a stern look. Sweetie had grown up to become as beautiful as Rarity, and some might say, to Rarity's annoyance, even more so. Her mane had grown long and her eyes were like diamonds. But just as she had inherited her sister's beauty, she also had that stern glare of her sister, which she now used on Scootaloo.
"So, what happened to you to make you look like an army of ponies beat the heck out of you?" Sweetie asked again as she let go of Scootaloo's neck.
"As I told my boss, I fell down my stairs this morning and knocked a table over on top of myself," Scootaloo said in her most convincing tone. As good a lie as it was, Applebloom chuckled to herself sarcastically, since she heard the lies ringing in her ears.
"Ah'm sorry, Sugarcube, but it was funny listening to ya telling us such a lie with that innocent look on yer face," Applebloom said with another chuckle. "So, ya honestly think that after growing up with the Element of Honesty as a sister, that ah wouldn't be able to see through a lie that one of my best friends told? We've been friends for nearly eleven years now; it's foals play seeing through yer lies. So what is really bothering ya?" Scootaloo kept her face emotionless so as not to give anything away, but she was scowling on the inside at how easily her years of learning how to lie had been ripped apart in a matter of seconds. Applebloom was right, saying that living with AJ had made her able to see through lies; making her a very strong ally to the princesses to tell when a criminal was lying. Of course, another one of her strengths was the body that she had gotten, working on the Apple's farm made her the second strongest mare in Ponyville, just behind Scootaloo.
"Yer not going to answer, are ya?" Applebloom eventually asked, sighing in frustration when Scootaloo nodded her head. "Come on, Scootaloo, why can't ya tell us what's wrong? This isn't the first time we've seen ya like this, looking like ya were beaten within an inch of yer life. At first we knew it was because ya were training with Zecora, but now we don't know what it is. Heck, we barely know anything about yer life anymore."
"Yeah, you barely talk to us, and when you do it's never about what you do in your free time or how your life is going," Sweetie Belle agreed as she walked in front of her friend to get her attention, scowling when she saw Scootaloo avert her gaze to avoid looking her in the eyes. "We're supposed to be friends, but all you've done for the past year is push us away farther and farther." Scootaloo looked around out of the corners of her eyes, noticing that a number of ponies had started to listen in on their conversation. She looked over at Snowflake and moved her head towards the door, smiling when he nodded and motioned for her to leave. Scootaloo led both of her friends outside and behind the gym, so that they could talk without being overheard.
"Look girls, I know how thing used to be back when we were fillies, but we aren't fillies anymore and we've had to grow up," Scootaloo explained softly, her mind going through memories of when they first formed the CMC, and when they started hunting for their cutie marks. "But we've all grown up now and each of us has gotten jobs now. My job happens to be tougher than most, but it's a job that has to be done. I don't want to push you two away, but I have to do this." Her two friends looked at her with unsure eyes, knowing that she wasn't telling them everything but hoping there was a reason behind it.
"Can you at least tell us what that reason is?" Sweetie Belle asked, her eyes pleading with Scootaloo, who had to look away again.
"I'm sorry, but I can't," she said softly as she started to head back towards the gym doors. "I...understand if the two of you don't consider me a friend anymore, I haven't exactly been the best friend that you two remember." Scootaloo closed her eyes and hung her head, waiting for the two of them to answer. They were right in saying that ever since she became Batmare, she had grown more and more distant from them, devotiong herself to her work as a crime fighter and detective. She barely had time to sleep and keep her job at the gym, let alone have any time to spend with them. She knew that she had let them down on a number of occasions and that she didn't deserve their friendship. And that's why she was so surprised when both Sweetie and AB both wrapped a hoof around her shoulder and pulled her into a massive hug.
"Aw come on, just because we're not always together doesn't mean that we can't still be friends," AB said with a smile as she pulled Scoots into one of her bear hugs. "Besides, we're still the Cutie Mark Caped Crusaders, and we promised that we would not stop until all of us have our cutie marks. And ya just happen to be missing a mark, so we can't just stop being friends now, can we?"
"It's like Applebloom said, we promised to be friends no matter the obstacles that we were faced with," Sweetie Belle agreed as she smiled at Scootaloo. "And even if we can't spend all our time together like we used to, we're still friends. We also know how hard it's been for you to stay positive in your day-to-day life, after...Batman...but you still pulled through and continued to be the hard-working pony that he showed you how to be. We can't fault you for that. So even if you haven't be the most reliable of friends, you're still our friend." Scootaloo didn't know what to say, so she decided not to say anything in response. She only smiled and closed her eyes in an effort to hide her tears.
"You two really are the best friends I've ever had," she whispered to herself with a smile. Snowflake opened the back door to the gym and caught the three of them as they gave each other a massive hug. He waited until they had broken apart before he coughed to get their attention. He pointed to Scootaloo and pointed inside the gym, where the weights she had been picking up earlier were still on the floor. "Alright, I'm coming. I guess I'll see the two of you later...I hope," Scootaloo said with a sigh as she ran back inside, Snowflake nodded to the two mares as he closed the door.
"Well, that didn't go as we wanted it to," Sweetie Belle said with a sigh as she turned to leave, AB following her. "I was hoping that we'd finally get her to tell us the truth, but she still seems uncomfortable about it."
"Well, ya know how she is," AB said with a chuckle. "She likes to keep her secrets, just like Batman. She really is his daughter, isn't she?"
"How could she be anything different? In the few months he was here, he practically became her father," Sweetie Belle agreed. "I just wish that she'd trust us more and tell us the truth."
"Well, being that Batmare is a secret that needs to be kept," AB said when the two of them reached the point where they'd each head off to their jobs, "I still can't believe that she still hasn't gotten her cutie mark fer being Batmare. Ya would think that being a superheroine would be cutie mark material. What do ya think she'd doing wrong?"
"Dunno. Maybe being a heroine isn't what she was meant to be." AB waved goodbye to her friend and started to head back to Sweet Apple Acres, while Sweetie walked off to her own home to prepare for an upcoming concert, both of them wondering if Scootaloo's decision to be a hero really was what she was destined to be. It was foolish for a pony to try and fight against their destiny, since nopony had managed to change what it was. Once Scootaloo figured that out, she would get her mark. They were sure of it.
====---====
After her work hours had ended at the gym, Scootaloo left to see Twilight for some desperate medical attention. Her legs had given out on her while she worked, and she had dropped some pretty heavy weights on her back. Snowflake had given her the ice packs that the gym carried and told her to sit down until the swelling stopped, an order that she hadn't argued with. While she did her best to rest up, her wounds had started to act up as well, making her entire body cry out in pain which forced her to meditate in the gym to repress it, gaining her some odd looks. She could feel her mind starting to go and certain parts of her body were going numb, which was not a good sign. As soon as her shift had ended, she grabbed her scooter and raced for Twilight's, knowing that she needed aid--and fast. She hoped that the alicorn was still home when she pulled up to the library, banging her hoof against the door and immediately pulling it back as pain coursed through it. Her knocks were answered a few seconds later as the door opened to reveal a massive purple dragon, who towered over her.
"Scootaloo?" Spike asked as his eyes looked over her body, widening in shock when he saw all the bruises and stiches. "Sweet Celestia, what happened to you?"
"Can you just let me in? I don't know how much longer I can remain standing," Scootaloo moaned as she tried to remain balanced, but fell over when she tried to take a step forward. Spike caught her before she could hit the ground and scooped her into his arms.
"Hang on. I'll go put you on the couch and see what kind of medicine Twilight has," he told her as he rushed inside, placing Scootaloo on the couch that Twilight had in the living room, before he dashed off to find any bandages that they kept. Scootaloo struggled to keep her eyes open and to keep from crying out in pain. "Don't worry, Twilight will be here soon. Just try to relax," Spike said from across the room. Scootaloo did as he said and simply closed her eyes, planning on resting for a few minutes. So she was a bit surprised when she awoke an hour later to find Twilight standing over her, and to see that she had been moved to the medical table Twilight kept in her basement.
"Well, look who's finally awake," Twilight said with dry humor, using her magic to heal some of the injuries that Scootaloo had sustained. "I believe this is the sixth time in under a month that you've woken up down here? Why do you keep doing this to yourself?"
"Because you're such a good doctor," Scootaloo said with a weak laugh, which turned into a coughing fit as blood forced itself into her mouth. Twilight put a hoof on her chest and gently placed her back down on the table, sighing when Scootaloo stopped coughing. "Besides, unlike all the other doctors, you don't ask any questions when I show up on your doorstep like this. Makes conversations a lot less awkward."
"That's only because I know what you do during the night," Twilight growled, as a loud crack could be heard when she connected two of Scoot's broken bones back together. Since Scootaloo didn't feel anything, she figured that Twilight had used a drug on her or that had shut down most of her nervous system. Either way, she didn't like it. "And sometimes, I wish that I didn't know what you were doing. Every time I feel explosions in the distance or hear rumors about how the Batmare has been killed, I have a heart attack! I can't sleep at night anymore in fear that one day, one of those rumors might be true! Why do you do this to yourself?!"
"You know why," Scootaloo said weakly, tired of having the conversation. "You've heard the reports from the princesses about how ponies have gone missing and how there's an evil at work. Five fillies have gone missing and a sixth might too, if I'm not out there. Batman wanted to protect everypony, but he's not here to carry out that mission. So I'll have to fill in for him." Scootaloo could hear the sounds of Twilight's magic being used to heal the burns on her body, as well as Twilight wincing, at some of the more badly damaged parts of her.
"Seems like somepony did a poor job of stitching you back together," Twilight muttered as she looked over the stitching that Luna had done last night. "Where in Equestria did you get all these burns? And how did you manage to break a fourth of your bones? A normal pony would be hospitalized for weeks on end by this level of injuries; what in Tartarus are you doing to yourself?"
"Well, I brought down an entire warehouse on myself the other night, and most of the broken bones were caused by me fighting a demon from the depths," Scootaloo explained with a shrug, gaining a horrified look from Twilight. "Don't worry though; I used the techniques Zecora taught me to suppress the pain until I could make it to you."
"I hope you realize that because of these nightly crusades of yours, I had to spend three years learning how to mend broken bones, how to heal burns of the third degree, and how to bring back a pony from the brink of death!"
"Wow, you really do care," Scootaloo said with a chuckle. Twilight roared and slammed both hooves onto the table, looking at Scootaloo with tear-filled eyes.
"OF COURSE I CARE! Do you think that I would spend all this time helping you to become like Batman if I didn't care?! Do you think that I would spend years learning how to heal the worst of injuries if I didn't care?!" Twilight yelled at her, letting all the fear and rage she had pent up out. "I care for you so much that I hate myself for not being able to stop you from going on this crusade of yours. But after Batman died, I knew that I had to help with this if you were to ever find closure; to ever find happiness! But over the years, I've come to see that this crusade will only end up with you dead...and it will be my fault for not stopping you." Her rant over, Twilight placed her head down into her hooves and started to sob. Scootaloo willed herself to get off the table and walk over to her friend, placing a comforting hoof on her shoulder.
"Twilight...I appreciate all you've done for me. I wouldn't have lasted this long without you and you know that," Scootaloo said, trying to comfort her. "But I have to do this. It's...who I feel like I am." Scootaloo looked out one of the windows to see that the sun had just started to set, telling her that it was almost time to go crusading again. She squeezed Twilight one last time before she turned around and headed for the stairs.
"Are you planning to go out again?" Scootaloo looked back at Twilight, who had lifted her head off the table and was looking at her with worry in her eyes. "You're in no condition to go out. Heck, I'd recommend that you spend three weeks off your hooves, minimum, just to heal up. If you continue to do this to yourself, your body will eventually give out."
"That's a risk I have to take," Scootaloo said in a much darker voice than she usually used as she turned and walked up the stairs, passing Spike, who had been walking down to bring Twilight some more medicine.
"Heh, even her voice is starting to sound like his," Twilight muttered to herself as Spike put down the medicine next to her.
"Are you sure that you should be letting her go, Twilight?" Spike asked her once Scootaloo was out of earshot. "She looks terrible. And this isn't the first time she's shown up like this. There was that one time, barely three months ago, when she had lost almost half of her blood gone, or when she had burns on both her wings. Can't you stop her from doing...whatever she's doing?"
"Honestly, Spike, I don't think anything I say can change her mind at this point," Twilight said with a sad sigh as she gathered up the bloodied bandages and her medical equipment. "She has to do this, I'm fairly certain it's all she lives for anymore. But I know one day that her luck is going to run out in the field, or I won't be able to save her. And her death will be my fault." Spike walked over and wrapped Twilight in a hug, comforting her as she quietly cried to herself.
"Hey, don't worry. She'll be fine," Spike assured her, even though Twilight didn't believe it. He looked out the window at the blackening sky, not knowing that another knight was about to rise with the moon.
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When does Batman come in and show everypony that he is alive!? DROP THE DRAMA BOMB!!
It seems like Scootaloo's friends already figure out she's Batmare.
3841123 God, I miss the batman,mew need you!
hummmm
Can Batman please clue his daughter in that even he has strong allies and he knows when to call for back up???? I would love to see Applebloom and Sweetie Bell manage to follow Scootaloo to a fight and back her up, she needs some help!!!!
Okay, it's official. Scootaloo needs somepony to be the Robin to her Batman, just to help decrease the risk that she might wind up dead. So I really hope Applebloom and Sweetie Belle started getting training from Zecora as soon as they figured out that their friend is Batmane. Or maybe Pipsqueak, since he's one of the tagged characters for this story.
Scootaloo really needs to realise that even Batman cant push himself forever without something finally going snap.
Snowflake is with season 4 cannonically named "Bulk Biceps"
I personally prefer Snowflake though.
3849396
Yep, but this was written after season 2
3849472
Ah, okay.
Heh, foreshadowing a bit?
Looking forward to the next chapter.
Awesome!
He´s coming back?
Can the Joker be considered a devil?
3857680 Nah, he fights for 'Murica. And anyone who loves America is no Daemon.
So Twilight is Dr. Leslie Thompkins and Rarity is Lucius Fox. Interesting.
5123734
does that make Zecora Alfred or something? also, what would that make Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Rainbow Dash, and/or anypony else who may or may not know her duel identity?