The Dark Mare Rises
Chapter 18: Epilogue---Batmare Beyond
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Batmare Beyond
~╠╦╣~
"'I see a beautiful city and a brilliant ponies rising from this abyss...'"
Flowers bloomed in the gardens of the Rainbow estate. Twilight read from her copy of A Tale of Two Cities. Zecora leaned on a cane, much like the one Rainbow Dash had worn the year before. She had needed it since the flood had smashed her into the wall of the reactor chamber, and she never spoke of it, merely shrugging off any comments made about the cane. Scootaloo stood beside her, her expression as melancholy as Twilight's. There was another mare standing off to the side, lost in her own grief.
"'I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of the descendants, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done."
Twilight shut the book. She gazed down at the small, simple marker that bore the name Rainbow Dash. Her throat tightened as she recited the final words of the passage.
"Is is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
There had been no word on the official cause of death, and most ponies believed she was somewhere deep at the bottom of Ponyville Lake, or simply gone altogether. There had been too much death anyway, to worry about a single one, however famous that pony had been. Most just wanted to move on, and bury the myriad tragedies that filled their pasts behind.
For some, this was easier said than done. Twilight looked across to the pony kneeling at the other two graves in the garden. She looked frailer, sounded frailer, and Twilight wondered briefly where Fluttershy had been during the last few months. She would have easily been killed had she stayed in Ponyville, and Twilight considered the possibility of her involvement in the Dark Knight's return.
Scootaloo tapped her on the shoulder. The unicorn looked up, and Scootaloo gestured away from the graves. Zecora had already gone, disappeared behind a tree, perhaps. Twilight walked with the younger pony, chatting solemnly with her.
Behind them, Fluttershy finally looked up from the ground. Her face was soaked with tears, and her rubbing had only reddened her face more. Her voice was hardly a squeak as she spoke to the graves beside Rainbow Dash's.
"I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I failed you. You trusted me, and I failed you." She bent her head again, and cried through her hooves.
The gravestones beside the smaller one were marked Rainbow Spectrum and Rainbow Sprint.
~╠╦╣~
The City Hall was rebuilt. A proper service for Mayor Mare had been held, and the next item of business was being attended to. And what an item it was.
Shining Armor stood in the middle of the lobby, in front of a group of representatives from all across Equestria, including the Princesses themselves (all three of them--Cadance was there as well). He took a breath, and announced the official unveiling of the newest piece of Ponyville history.
His horn glowed, and he pulled a large blue cloth off of a statue of no pony other than the Batmare. She stood in a pose that suited her, on her hind legs, head down, hooves curled into fists. It was their testament to the hero they had needed, and who had come to them. Looking out into the crowd, he saw his wife tearing up beside her aunts.
He was feeling a little sappy, too.
~╠╦╣~
Scootaloo entered the office just as the lawyers present were getting right down to the meat of things.
"Though Ms. Dash's will does not take into account her previous loses, there are still considerable assets to be exposed of."
He cleared his throat, and began:
"The contents of Rainbow Manor are to be sold, to settle for the house's expenses. The remainder is to be given in its entirety to one Ms. Fluttershy."
Good, Scoot thought. That shy yellow mare deserved it, having spent her whole life serving the Rainbow family.
"The estate itself," the lawyer continued, "is left to the city of Ponyville, on the condition it never be demolished,altered, or otherwise interfered with, and that it is used for one purpose and one purpose only: the housing and care of the city's at-risk and orphaned children."
Scootaloo smiled, imagining the children running through the gardens and exploring the vast expanses of the house. The matron was probably praying in thanks right now. She did that too much.
The lawyers gathered their papers, packed them in identical brown suitcases, and began to file out the door, ho-hum. Scootaloo was led to a clerk at a desk nearby, where she was told she could check to see if Rainbow had left her any smaller "correspondences and instructions."
"Scootaloo," she said.
The clerk consulted the list.
"Nothing here," Frowning, she began to step away, but stopped when an idea flashed through her mind. SHe turned back to the clerk, pulling her wallet out of her jacket, and slid a card out of a pocket in it. She handed to the clerk, saying, "Try my legal name."
She glanced at the ID before checking the list again.
"Yep, here it is." Her horn glowed, and out of the pile of various items came a bulging sports bag. She brought it over to the pegasus, who hefted it onto her back. She was rightly confused.
What the hay is this for?
She turned to leave, but before she did, the clerk called back to her. She turned once more.
"You should use your full name," she suggested, twirling a pen in her hoof. "I like that name...Robin."
She smiled sheepishly, embarrassed by her first name. She'd always been worried about her first name sounding too girly for a tomboy, and the use of her last name as her full name had stayed with her, even through adulthood.
She stepped away from the desk, wondering what could be in the bag sitting uncomfortably on her back. She was tempted to open it right away, and resisted the urge. She knew that Rainbow wanted the contents of the bag to be seen by her eyes only.
As she walked away from the clerk, a lawyer strode up to her. He looked relatively annoyed, and for a good reason. One of the items on Rainbow Dash's list of possessions was missing, and they couldn't have that, could they?
"Any luck?" he asked when he reached the desk. The mare shrugged.
"Nothing yet," she replied.
"Well, keep looking," the lawyer said sternly. "We can't just put a string of pearls on the manifest as 'lost.'"
~╠╦╣~
Zecora stood in front of the sole remaining copy of the Bat. It had been put together with the scraps that had fallen off during its final flight through Ponyville, along with the blueprints kept in her data banks and components that had survived Spike's incursion on her beloved Applied Sciences. Two technicians inspected it, having gone through the most intense of background checks before having been allowed anywhere near her children.
"Why worry about the stabilization software?" the older of the two asked. "This whole autopilot system obsolete."
Please," Zecora said. "I must know what I could have fixed, before it and nuclear bombs were mixed."
The younger techie looked puzzled. "Ms. Zecora...it's already fixed." He tapped a wrench on the display panel. "Software patch, six moths ago."
Six months ago?
"Check the patch user name, for its maker and I are not the same," she suggested.
The techie rolled his eyes at the zebra's rhyme, and keyed in the request anyway. His eyes widened when he saw the name.
"Rainbow Dash? What?"
Zecora's eyes widened, and she stepped away from the aircraft. Pieces in her mind clicked into place, and a small smile lit up her face. A weight was lifting from her shoulders, soaring up like a bird.
No. Like a Bat.
~╠╦╣~
Twilight sighed and stepped out onto her Flat. Her nightly escape from the rest of the world had become less frequent, due to Big Macintosh's constant badgering about having a date, then another, and another. It took serious time out of her workday, and she wondered if ponies were beginning to notice that she was slipping up a bit more now.
Of course, she happily excepted every invitation to dinner, a movie, an evening stroll, a night at the barn, etc.
She smacked the flies she held in her aura against an air duct, straightening them. She had thought about Big Mac again, and that meant that the night would eventually end up with them together, perhaps up on this rooftop.
After all, there was nopony else left to share it with.
~╠╦╣~
Scootaloo stared at the GPS, then the waterfall, then at the bag of climbing equipment at her hooves. She knew what Rainbow Dash wanted her to do, but she wasn't sure if it was possible. The equipment was advanced, sure, but ths was a very big waterfall. If she got hurt, she'd have to drag herself back to her car, where she'd left her phone.
Of course, she considered, you've always wanted to be a stunt-pony.
She smiled, and snatched a harness from the bag.
~╠╦╣~
Fluttershy sipped her drink lightly, gazing at the unfamiliar faces in the restaurant. She was feeling only the smallest bit better, having decided to take an early vacation (her new job was as caretaker of the young foals; they were practically her own children, and some called her "Mama") to Flowerance, and had felt her game awaiting her the moment she stepped off the plane.
And so, here she was, looking through the crowd idly, waiting for her order to be ready. She couldn't help it, she realized as she glanced at the other patrons faces. It had become a habit at this restaurant.
But, of course, they were all strangers.
They always were.
~╠╦╣~
Twilight turned to head back down the stairs to get Big Mac, when something odd caught her eye. Turning towards it, she trotted over so that her vision wasn't partially blocked by the air vent.
What she saw amazed her.
Standing in the same spot it had years before, shining like new (which she assumed it was), was the Bat-Signal. The shattered searchlight had been repaired, and the freshly-cast bat-shaped symbol stood proudly on its front, waiting to be used.
Twilight stepped over to it hesitantly, unsure if it was real. Slowly, she reached a hoof out, and shivered when it touched cold metal. Then she looked out into the night, wondering if she should turn it on or not. All she needed was a sign.
Maybe she wasn't on her own tonight after all.
~╠╦╣~
Scootaloo traded daylight for stuffy darkness, passing through the waterfall relatively unharmed. She unclipped her harness and stepped further into the cave behind the waterfall, pulling a flare out with one hoof and unscrewing it with the other. She hardly noticed that she was walking on her hind legs.
As she lit the flare, a rustling, chittering mass above her stirred. The cave came to life as the screeching creatures swooped down from their roosts, flying wildly around the cave. Scootaloo ducked as they buffeted her, returning her front hooves to the ground. Then, slowly, she rose up again, as she was engulfed in a wild flurry of...bats.
~╠╦╣~
Fluttershy finished her drink and set it down on the table, disappointed with her game. The results were the same, not that she expected them to ever be different. She heard laughter from a table to her left, and she felt the itch come over her again. Bracing herself for disappointment, Fluttershy glanced over at the couple three tables over from her--and saw no strangers.
A pink mare with enormous pink curls of mane was shaking in her seat, trying not to make a scene in the restaurant. The cyan mare who had clearly made her laugh watched with amusement on her face, until she felt the light green eyes of the elder pegasus three tables away watching her. She glanced up, and her maroon eyes met Fluttershy's. She smiled, and nodded, and Fluttershy did the same, after a moment of disbelief passed.
The waiter gave her her bill, and Fluttershy was snapped out of her stupor. She signed her name, and the waiter trotted away, thanking her for dining with them tonight. She glanced once more at the couple three tables down, but the mare had returned her attention to the pink mare facing her. She scratched her head, brushing some of her multi-shaded mane out of her face, and Fluttershy wondered how other ponies didn't recognize her because of it. She took another look at the bubbly pink mare, and recognized her as the nervous little maid who'd been there the night everything started up again.
Pinkamena,I think.
She pulled her eyes away from the couple. She left them in peace. Besides, it was rude to stare. She paid a generous tip and left the restaurant with a spring in her step.
She never looked back.
~╠╦╣~
The bats surrounded her, frightened her, with their screeching in the dark. She was still crouching defensively as the creatures buffeted her body, but she was now standing completely on her hind legs. There was an instinctive panic inside of her, but she knew to push it down.
She also knew why she was here.
Bats were not a symbol of fear in Ponyville, or at least not just fear. They were a symbol for hope and justice and the things that are right. They stood for a legend somepony wise and brave had once told her. A hero could be anyone, the pony had said. Now she raised her head up, greeting the bats as they welcomed her into their home.
Scootaloo rose, and was swallowed up by the darkness of their wings.
╠╦╣
END
╚═╝
To Mr. Hoffman: always rising.