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The Dark Mare Rises

by NotARealPonydotcom

Chapter 17: Ch. 16---Endgame

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Chapter 16
Endgame

~╠╦╣~

DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY

Dawn rose on Ponyville.

A heavy snow fell from the sky as an army of cops and Royal Guards marched through the streets. Their numbers were over a thousand strong, and they comprised of ponies, griffons, dragons, and even a few Diamond Dogs. Armored stallions marched shoulder to shoulder with regular beat cops and detectives. They weren't going to hide or be held back any longer.

As they approached City Hall (the new one), Spike's own army came out to meet them. Escaped prisoners, convicts, psychopaths, anarchists, and opportunists lined the streets, blocking the path of the approaching soldiers. The light side and dark side of the city were meeting, for what would be there only confrontation. The masked drake himself had not shown up, choosing not to make an appearance in the fray. That is, not yet.

Big Mac led the pack. He was in full uniform, and held his head high, proud of himself for the first time in months. He was going to prove his worth to Twilight, and when it was over, when Spike lay on the ground defeated, and the bomb was back in its place, then by Celestia, he was going to find that unicorn and get her a damn drink. He smiled proudly as the two armies met at the corners of (appropriately enough) Harmony Street. They were evenly matched in numbers--until the three stolen tumblers made their way into Macintosh's field of vision.

Buck, he thought. They were outgunned now, severely outgunned, and he grimaced as a mercenary announced a message from his loudspeaker.

"DISPERSE. DISPERSE OR BE FIRED UPON."

The tumblers were noticed by other cops and soldiers, and faces untouched by the sun for months went paler still. There was apprehension, Mac could feel it, but none of them backed down. He stood at the front, gazing at the head mercenary. He recognized him as one of the goons he'd taken in the night the Batmare had returned. Now he had a target.

"There's only one law enforcement in this city!" he called out, and the army behind him answered back with their own battle cries.

A surge of blue and gold rushed at the opposing side.

~╠╦╣~

Spike stepped out from his headquarters in City Hall to watch the battle begin. He was almost amused. It seemed as though his ants still wanted to try and escape the magnifying glass, give it one last go before they were eventually burnt by the heat of a magnified sun.

"Open fire," he said flatly. Garble nodded, and signaled to the drakes in the tumblers.

Missiles and cannon fire blasted at the army of Ponyvillians. Several went flying into the air, and others were on the ground in mere seconds. The two armies clashed, and Spike watched the crimson stallion at the head of the army take down two of his men at once. He had a vengeance. But the others were weaker, and were beginning to disperse, knowing they could live for at least a short time more. Spike expected them to break rank at any moment.

Then, out of the sky, the Bat came swooping down over the street. Its own cannons were primed, and the tumblers went flying through the air seconds later. They landed on their sides, twisted metal smoldering and wheels turning uselessly.

Spike grimaced under his mask. This was not part of his plan.

The Bat rose above the army of cops, providing the support and encouragement they needed to continue. Spike watched with annoyance as his own forces began to slowly, surely, fall back on the offensive lines. Bodies hit the snow. Gunfire became pointless, and the fist-fights began. Now Spike became worried. Hardly any of the cops had fallen, though his men were many, with actual fists to make, and claws to rake with. The Batmare had done something, she had to have done something. But the Bat was doing nothing. It merely floating over the street, giving the cops a sense of hope.

The street turned into a snowy melee as the battle for Ponyville's fate spilled over onto sidewalks and the steps. There were none who stood by who were not already beaten into submission. This was truly the fight to decide who ran Ponyville, once and for all.

Spike watched the Bat move across the sky, slowly descending into the street below, behind the soldiers. From his vantage point, he caught a glimpse of the caped figure who had piloting it come clambering out. In her deep black armor and nocturnally-themed disguise, the Batmare looked exceptionally out of place in the daylight, especially while it was snowing. She had come into the light once more.

No matter, Spike thought. I've broken you once, and I shall happily do so again.

He strode down the steps, towards his foe.

~╠╦╣~

Catmare was part of the plan, of course. Her job was to get the hell out of the city. How, one might ask? Why, with nothing less than the coolest bucking motorcycle in the world.

The Bat-Pod looked good on her, she decided when she'd first straddled it after the Batmare had asked her to help. She'd smiled and nodded as her explained her plan to the pink mare, like a good little filly, and zoomed off on the cycle, ready to start a new life with the flash drive tucked safely in a slim pocket on her skin-tight outfit.

Now, sitting astride the Bat-Pod, she prepared the cannons mounted on it, and fired at the enormous wall of junked automobiles, which were (or had been, at least) blocking one of the tunnels that led out of the city. The wall disappeared in the explosion, and Catmare covered her eyes with her goggles to keep from being blinded by the shrapnel fling at her. She ducked behind the bulletproof shields on the Bat-Pod's figurehead.

Her hoof hovered over the firing button, waiting for the smoke to clear to see if she needed to fire again. When it did, though, she saw the tunnel was clear, and awaited whatever vehicle would get through first. She had a straight shot right out of Ponyville.

Now, if only she could take it.

~╠╦╣~

Spike waded through the fray, searching for his true enemy. Mares, colts, drakes and griffons, even a damned donkey were trying to keep him from her, even his own men, and as he pushed them out of the way he twisted a purple dragon's neck, snapping it and leaving his body to slump into the arms of a Diamond Dog who was not on the side Spike was. He didn't care, and punched, kicked, and shoved his way through the crowd. Finesse was nothing to him--only the results. He wanted to hear her back breaking again. The thought made him itch with desire.

He trampled over bodies, fought with those on both sides of the field, always searching for the caped figure that had survived him once. Once.

His eyes suddenly locked with hers, and it was as if a path had formed between them. There was nopony, dragon, whatever in between them. He strode over to meet her, and so did she. Unlike him, the Batmare paused to beat his men off of the foalish idiots trying to stay in the light of this last day, and so it was that he reached her while she was pulling a dragon off of a pale white unicorn whose armor told Spike he was of great importance to the Royal Guard. Perhaps a captain, it did not matter.

Spike struck out at the Batmare, who used his own minion's body as a shield. Ribs cracked, and the drake barely had time to scream before Spike grasped his head with both hands and yanked his head sharply upward. The drake's scales seemed to rise up an extra few inches, and the Batmare dropped him, leaving him to snatched at his lengthened spine momentarily before falling into the dark of unconsciousness. Spike elbowed the rising Captain out of the way, shoved one of his men away, and a small gap in the crowd formed. Some of the armies stopped fighting to watch as Spike and Batmare face each other one last time.

"You came back," Spike said finally. "To die with your city."

"No," she replied, and smiled grimly, to his surprise. "I came to die with you."

"I am touched."

Spike had intended for her to suffer in that pit for the remainder of her worthless life. He had wanted her to watch her city burn, to see his triumph, but it did not appear to be the case at this point. Spike approached the caped figure slowly.

Perhaps it it better this way.

He lunged toward the Dark Knight, throwing powerful blows at her cowl. She dodged them, and fought back smartly, less like the drunken fool she'd acted like in the sewers. She ducked and weaved, and landed punches where they could. They felt like she was prodding him. It would take more than that to take him down.

He breathed deeply, taking in the gas from his mask.

The two fought in the center of the street, shoving each other through the crowd as they went. There was nothing in the Batmare's fighting that showed the extent of the injuries Spike had inflicted on her the last time they'd met this way. He saw now the mare that had captured the attention of the League of Shadows all those years ago

But that would not stop him. Both Batmare and Ponyville would die today. He had come to far to not get his way.

He parried her attacks, and drove her back with a set of rapid-fire punches and kicks. The Dark Knight was driven back onto the steps of City Hall, and launched herself forward using a pillar that stood on the steps. She grappled with the drake, and he realized she was aiming for the canisters at the back of his head. He almost laughed at the attempt. He raked his claws against her gaunlets, trying to tear them off, and she pushed them apart again.

Now he lunged for her neck, and managed to wrap his claws around it, trying to snap her neck. She threw her hooves up and spread them, forcing Spike's arms away. She smashed her hoof into his skull, but he simply shrugged it off, taking a deep breath and forcing her away again. He saw the Batmare was stumbling now. The reckless drunk was making another appearance.

Spike clenched his hands and threw another punch.

It was only a matter of time.

He looked up at the building he'd claimed as they clambered up the steps, their fighting drawing them closer and closer to the wide double doors. He glimpsed a purple-maned unicorn watching from window, a concerned expression on her face.

Watch, he thought lunging once more at the Batmare. Watch the Dark Knight fall once more.

~╠╦╣~

Scootaloo gathered the kids around her. They all stared up at her, eyes full of hope. She gulped, and told them her plan.

"Everypony listen! The bomb's gonna blow today, and we need to get as many ponies out of here as quick as possible. The exit's the Everfree Underground Tunnel! Go two blocks, get as many ponies as you can heading that way, then meet back here! We're gonna take the bridge!"

The kids all saluted, and went charging off to warn ponies. She hoped they would listen.

Gazing over in the direction of where the fight was sounding off, she wondered how many were dead. And if one of them was wearing a mask.

~╠╦╣~

Batmare and Spike continued to brawl up the steps, neither of them letting up. Batmare didn't bother with theatrics or tricks or threats, and she knew the ominous look of the Batmare disguise didn't faze Spike at all. The only way to beat this monster was through sheer force. One way or another, this fight would be their last. She only hoped that it wouldn't take too much longer. The bomb was bound to go off any minute.

A blinding-fast volley of punches drove Spike back. She lunged to press her advantage, only to have their battle interrupted by a tumbler passing by. It gave Spike the second he needed to recover, and he forced the Dark Knight into a pillar. He was ready to end this whelp, and raised a fist to crack that damned cowl again. Before he could, however, Batmare drove her foreleg across his mask, her gauntlet-mounted blades sticking out (they hadn't been there before though), and sliced against the breathing tubes that made up the skull-like part of the mask. Gas leaked out of them, and Spike backed off, grabbing at the tubes as the agony returned.

He bellowed in pain...except it wasn't a bellow. It was a pitiful wail, that of a child. It was high-pitched and cracked, filled with agony and rage and sorrow. Batmare saw, for only a moment, that she had just attacked a child, a child escaped from the tortures of hell, who needed that mask to stay in the light of the world.

Spike tried to fix the tubes, but his attacker punched him again first. Shocks of pain, something so unreal to he who had lived with anesthetic gas filling his lungs for years, made him spasm, and she smashed her hoof into his mask again, breaking another tube. He tried to stop her, had to, or else he would die from the pain. This perpetual agony, brought upon by that damned doctor, gave way to cold, unfeeling rage, and e swung violently at the Batmare. She dodged, too easily, and he smashed a piece out of the pillar she'd been in front of. He swung again, in his rage, and felt the Batmare grab his vest before he could turn.

He was thrown through the glass doors of the City Hall, where he lay on the floor, screeching (it had to be screeching now; he had no voice left, it was gone in the pain, the burning, the fire) and shivering as the pain rocked through him. Before he reach his mask, Batmare gripped his neck, and used her free hoof to search him.

"WHERE'S THE TRIGGER!?!?" she shouted. It had to be on his person somewhere. "YOU WOULDN'T GIVE IT TO SOME ORDINARY CITIZEN-"

Spike spoke, weakly, surrendering to the pain and lying still. His voce had changed, through the mask, and now, instead of the deep, menacing voice that had haunted her dreams, he spoke with a voice that she could have mistaken for a girl's. It was the voice of the child that had screamed when she'd first damaged the mask.

"I broke you," he said. "How have you come back?"

The pit. Batmare remembered.

"You thought you were the only one who could learn the strength to escape?"

For some reason, Batmare saw a smile in his eyes. A knowing smile.

"I never escaped."

She blinked in surprise. That didn't make sense.

"The child of Ra's al Ghul made the climb-" she began.

"But he is not the child of Ra's al Ghul," a familiar voice whispered in her ear. Something penetrated her armor, and she gasped in both pain and shock as Rarity leaned in closer. Her eyes were mocking. "I am."

Dash felt an animal panic rise up in her throat. She spluttered, not knowing what to say. Rarity shushed her, and reached in her coat pocket.

"And though I am not 'ordinary,' Rainbow Dash, I am a citizen..."

She pulled the trigger out of her pocket, and smiled again.

~╠╦╣~

Twilight gasped for breath. The truck had been wrong. Twice. She watched the third truck pass by and prayed that there was enough time. Then she whistled.

The patrol car came zooming around a corner and slammed into the armored tumbler in front of the truck, slowing it to a halt. The truck stopped too, and Twilight sprinted forward. She unlocked the door with her magic, and leaped inside, shutting the doors behind her immediately after.

She grinned up at the bomb, and pulled out the disruption device.

This better work, or we're all dead.

~╠╦╣~

The Batmare didn't move. Rarity's knife was instant's press away from cutting into a vital organ. She kept her grasp on Spike's neck steady, but never took her eyes off the white mare kneeling next to her.

Her smile was so cruel. It was a manipulating smile, one she'd seen the night at the charity ball (to fund the reactor that she must have known would be turned into a bomb) and the evening they'd broken into her manor in the rain (she'd slept with her, dammit!). And still, it was so, so lovely.

"My mother could not even name me before she was killed," she said, still smiling, still holding the knife in Batmare's armor. "The way I would have been killed, if not for my protector...Spike."

She looked over at the purple dragon, who was gazing silently at her. He was begin to shake again, and reached out to comfort him. His shivering halted at her touch.

"I climbed out of the pit," she continued, looking back at the stunned pegasus in armor. "I found my father and brought him back to exact terrible vengeance, but by that time the prisoners and the doctor had done their work to my friend, my protector..."

She adjusted the tubes on his mask, fixing them as best as she could. A single tear rolled down the drake's cheek as she helped him, and Batmare could feel his chest heaving, from pain or sorrow she didn't know.

"The League took us in," she recalled. "Trained us...until my father excommunicated Spike." Her tone became harsh, and she shut her eyes, grimacing for a moment. "He could not accept him. All my father saw was a monster, who wanted vengeance for the hell he was left pushing away with every breath he took. He saw a reminder of the hell that he'd condemned my mother to."

Her own tears dripped on the floor of the City Hall.

"His only crime"--she sniffled--"was that he loved me. I couldn't forgive my father..." She turned back to Batmare. "Until you murdered him."

For the first time, Batmare spoke to her.

"He was trying to kill millions of innocent ponies-"

"Innocent is a strong word to use against the ponies of Ponyville, Rainbow." She scoffed at the pegasus's words. "I honor my father by finishing his work."

She drew her hoof away from Spike's mask, repaired as best as she could manage to. She took up the trigger again, and twisted the knife in Dash's body, getting a grunt of pain in response.

"You see, Rainbow, it's the slow knife...the knife that waits years and years without forgetting, then slips between the bones. That's the knife"--she armed the trigger--"that cuts deepest."

She pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

~╠╦╣~

Inside the truck, Twilight Sparkle was laughing. She lay on the floor of the truck, exhausted, beaten up, and cold, and still she laughed. She laughed at the joy of still being alive.

On the jammer, a blinking light told her that it was doing its work. The bomb wouldn't go off for another eleven minutes.

~╠╦╣~

Rarity stared at the trigger in cold fury. She looked back to Batmare, who smiled weakly.

"Your knife may have been too slow," she said.

Rarity huffed, and threw the trigger aside. She stood up, twisting the blade of the knife one last time, and waited for Spike to pull himself out of Batmare's grasp before stepping over to the dragon. He was holding a pistol at the pegasus, and only dropped it when Rarity put her hoof on his hand.

"Not yet," she said. "I want her to feel the fire." She turned to the Dark Knight one last time, and added, to her: "Feel the fire of twelve million souls that had counted on you." She brushed a hoof against his mask once more, checking for leaks, and whispered, "Goodbye, my friend," softly.

He nodded. There were still tears in his eyes, and she didn't ask why. She didn't want to know. All she wanted was to see him again, when the fire took them. Then, maybe, in the next life, they could be left in peace.

She spun and trotted swiftly out of the building, flanked by guards. She reached a tumbler, stepped inside, and was off, leaving Spike alone with the wounded pegasus.

Batmare watched her go--and felt a blinding pain rush through her head. Spike had struck her with the butt of a shotgun. She had no clue where it had come from, and only assumed that he'd had it the whole time. She turned back up to the drake, stunned, and watched him crack open the breach to see if it held any ammunition. Apparently satisied with what he saw, he snapped the action shut and cocked the gun.

"You'll just have to imagine the fire," he said as he leveled the weapon at her face. His voice had deepened once more. "You and I both know...I have to kill you now."

Rainbow Dash stared down the barrels of a gun, just like her parents. She faced death calmly, as her parents had done. Spike's finger tightened on the trigger, and there was a BOOM!-


And Spike went sailing backwards, into a wall. He slid down, and did not move. His eyes fluttered between alive and dead, and Batmare wondered if he would get back up again. She turned around, pulling the knife Rarity had stuck in her out (slowly), and was almost overjoyed to see Catmare sitting astride the Bat-Pod. in the entrance to the building. Smoke rose from the cannons.

"That whole 'no guns' thing?" she said. "I don't feel so strongly about it."

~╠╦╣~

Rarity was approaching the truck. She stepped out of the tumbler calmly, holding onto the sides and waiting for the passenger door to open. As the tumbler passed the carrier part of the truck, she was shocked to hear laughter coming from inside the truck.

Somepony was in there.

Well, she thought. They are going to have a tough time in nine minutes.

In nine minutes, the bomb went off.

~╠╦╣~

Catmare zoomed down the road, toward the Bat. Batmare sat behind her on it, rather uncomforatbly. Usually, she was the one driving.

"I need you on the ground," she shouted as they zipped past the fights still going on. "I'll take the air."

Catmare nodded. She liked the bike. It suited her.

Batmare looked back at City Hall one last time. She wondered whether or not anypony had found Spike yet.

She wondered if he was still alive.

~╠╦╣~

Rainbow Dash was right, but only barely. The only thing keeping Spike alive was his gas, and he could feel it escaping into the air around him. He was upset, not because he would die, but because he had not killed her first.

The pain was coming.

He breathed slowly, savoring the breaths he had left. The air tasted different, and he realized slowly that the taste wsa regular air, not the gas he had grown so used to breathing.

The air tasted wonderful.

The pain was there. It took him swiftly.


He was back in the pit. There had been no escape. He had simply been sleeping, unconscious while the prisoners beat upon him. Now he was in bandages. But...he still had the mask on? No, it had been given to him after he made it out, when they came to rescue him...

Oh. Wait. That had been a dream.

He saw the other prisoners coming towards him. They sharpened their claws against the bars of his cell, and grinned.

"Now, where were we?" one asked, and they tore into him. He screamed, but all that came out was a pitiful squeak.

~╠╦╣~

Scootaloo yelled at the officers guarding the railroad. They'd set up a sort of bridge, dug a canyon during the past five months, as a precaution against anypony who wanted to run away. They wouldn't let her take these kids across. She'd tried to explain the situation, but they hadn't listen. They never listen to the angry kid with the messy purple hair, not when she was a kid, not now.

So she decided to be hotheaded. That worked the last few times.

She took a step towards the barrier. The guards raised their weapons.

"If you take another step forward, we will shoot!"

No you won't, she wanted to say. What came out was, "Your orders are obsolete, officers. We need to cross, now.

They fired at her hooves. She flinched, but still stepped forward again.

Then she saw the trigger in one of the guards hooves. She screamed her objection in the same moment he pressed the button.

The bridge blew. It was flimsy, made of wood, and it lit beneath her hooves. She screamed, and leapt backwards, not letting herself go over the edge. The bridge fell away into the canyon. Now it was impossible to get across, even with the dragons guarding the edge of the city facing away from them (they were that big).

Scootaloo felt rage building up in her chest. She shrieked at the guards, letting them know what they'd done.

"YOU BASTARDS! YOU'RE KILLING US ALL, YOU SONSABITCHES!"

~╠╦╣~

Rarity was having a conniption in the driver's seat of the truck. She'd had to start driving when the useless drake at the wheel before her got shot in the head by that absolute bitch Catmare. Now, the Bat was chasing, the tumblers had been taken out, and on top of that, her coat was covered in blood.

Not how she'd wanted to go out.

So, she decided to improvise. And that meant extravagant!

She pulled out another trigger. his one would work, she knew, because the bomb was not its target. She hit it, and threw it out of the window. She checked her timer. Four minutes. Time to stop that pony's laughter.

She swerved on the highway she was on, flipping the truck and sending it over the edge of the level divider. It flipped again and again, until finally coming to rest in a heap of torn up metal.

The Bat-Pod reached it before the Bat did. Catmare got off the bike and ran to the truck, throwing open the doors to reveal a hyperventilating Twilight Sparkle and the bomb, which counted down to three minutes even as she yanked Twilight out of the way.

"We can get the bomb to the reactor if we get the cable tied up," Twilight said, though her actual words were harder to understand. She'd just survived an intense car crash, and was shivering as she looked over to the Bat, which had parked and was now depositing a long wire cable. The Batmare approached with it, ready to hook the cable up. She stopped when the driver's door opened, and a blood-soaked Rarity slipped halfway out. She had on a mad smile.

"I wouldn't bother," she said, grinning. "I was so trusted here. You showed me the reactor, made me your president, and even gave me the emergency flood codes." She laughed, and went into a fit of coughing.

Batmare almost dropped the cable.

"Prepare yourself." Their eyes met one last time. "My father's work is done." She shut her eyes, smiling as she left the world, perhaps to join her father



He was dying all over again. There was no one there to help him, no matter what what real or not. He was alone, without a protector. And they were reaching for his mask.

"Stop, please."

And they did. He hadn't said anything. It was someone else. Someone he hadn't thought would join him here.

The other prisoners stepped back to reveal her to him. Only, he thought it was her. She wasn't like he remembered her, with hooves and everything. Now she was like him, with fangs and scales and claws. But it had to be her, because those eyes, the ones that shone with such love for him...

"Spike," she said, gesturing for him to come to her. He did, and she slipped off his mask. He braced himself, but felt no pain. That part had been a dream to, hadn't it been?

"Of course it was, Spike," she said, giggling. He smiled, and could show his lips again. She smiled back, and kissed him softly on his new lips. Then she took his hand, and they walked off to wherever they wanted. It definitely wasn't the pit.

They'd risen above that.

~╠╦╣~

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked. The Batmare was still hooking the cables up to the bomb. The core couldn't be stabilized, that was what Rarity had said. So why bother?

The armored mare had an answer ready. "Two minutes," she said, gesturing to the timer. "I'll fly it up, over the Everfree. I can get up high enough."

Catmare looked over her shoulder and nodded.

"Rig it to fly, then bail..." she began.

Batmare shook her head.

"No autopilot."

Understanding dawned as Batmare hooked u the last of the cables. Catmare turned to face her.

"You could have gone anywhere," she said. "Been anything. And you came back here."

"So did you."

"Then I guess we both just lost the game." She grabbed her shoulders and brought their lips together. This was an affectionate kiss, tender and loving, not the challenge from the ball (so long ago!). They separated, both wishing for more, both knowing it wasn't possible.

Batmare climbed into the cockpit. As she prepared to take off, Twilight Sparkle approached.

"I never cared who you were-"

"Good," Batmare growled.

"But shouldn't the ponies know the hero who saved them?" the commissioner asked.

Batmare paused before replying. "A hero can be anypony. That was always the point. Anypony at all. Even a self-centered little filly who thinks she's 20% cooler than everypony else..."

The canopy closed,and the Bat prepared to fly one last time.

Twilight Sparkle stepped back from the cockpit, blinking.

20%...?

~╠╦╣~

It was a party. A pretty good one, Twilight thought, and made her way to the snack table, where a rambunctious young pegasus was laughing obnoxiously with an orange mare and a blond pegasus with odd eyes.

The pegasus noticed her new badge, and trotted over to her, getting very close to her. The other mares simply watched, and the orange one rolled her eyes.

"Deputy, huh? How come I haven't seen you as a regular cop before?" said the pegasus.

"It was a surprise," she replied, pushing the mare's face away. "I was assigned by Princess Celestia."

The pegasus's eyes widened in false admiration. "The Princess! Well, looks like we've got a bad-flank over here!" She raised her hooves in a mocking gesture.

Twilight's eye twitched. "I'm sorry, but who do you think you are?"

Now the pegasus was upset. "You don't know who I am?" She whipped her rainbow-shaded mane around, hitting Twilight with it. "This doesn't clue you in?"

A blank stare from the deputy. The cyan mare groaned.

"Rainbow Dash." She extended a hoof, a confident grin appearing on her face. "I'm 20% cooler than any other billionaire you'll ever meet." Then she wandered off, leaving both Twilight and the pair of mares she'd been laughing with earlier behind.

Twilight wondered if she was bipolar.

Twilight's mouth was agape as the Bat flew straight up, dragging the bomb up with her.

"Rainbow Dash?"

~╠╦╣~

Scootaloo had finished shouting at the guards, and she was done crying. Now, she was rushing the kids back onto the bus.

"C'mon! We're gonna get away from the blast! Quick!"

The matron of St. Blueblood's, who had joined them, was trying to stop her, for whatever reason.

"Scoot, they need to make their peace."

"For Celestia's sake!" she yelled. "They are children! They have no peace to-"

An explosion rocked the railroad. Scootaloo clambered on the bus, shouting to the kids.

"Get down! That's it!"

"No!" It was Rumble. He was gazing out of the window, at a black machine tearing through the air, rising faster and faster.

"It's the Batmare!"

The other kids (and the matron) watched as the Bat flew higher and higher, out over the Everfree Forest. It became smaller and smaller, and Scootaloo wondered what she was thinking. The orange pegasus realized what it was just as the white dot appeared in the sky.

An orb of nuclear power burst out from the dot. Thunder rocked the bus, and Scootaloo turned away as the heat wave hit them. There was a moment when it was not winter, but the hottest possible summer instead. Then the wave passed, and the cloud of smoke that appeared expanded outward. There was a second wave, suddenly, and the bus tilted. Scootaloo thought for a moment that it was really the end, that the Batmare had been too late.

Then she was still there, and the world was back to normal. At least, it appeared to be that way. The kids on the bus were cheering, and the matron was praying on the ground. She stepped off the bus, and saw that Royal Guards were approaching from across the busted bridge. Of course, it was brigade of pegusi. Scootaloo stared at them for a moment.

They only came after the danger had passed. After the Batmare had passed.

She pulled her badge out, and stared at it thoughtfully.

Then she chucked it over the side of the pony-made canyon, where it fell without a sound.

Next Chapter: Epilogue---Batmare Beyond Estimated time remaining: 10 Minutes
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