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Owlman In Equestria

by Bico

Chapter 1: Act I: A Dark Knight Falls

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OWLMAN IN EQUESTRIA
~BICO
ACT I: A DARK KNIGHT FALLS

The night sky over Upper Manehattan glittered with unusual beauty, washing the open streets and sidewalks with the light of the stars and moon, as well as leaving the close nooks and crannies of the crowded borough deep in shadow. For one particular family, making its way back from a particularly enjoyable production of BATS: The Musical, the beauty of the night was somewhat marred by the unfortunate reaction of their youngest to the play.

The pink maned filly screamed as she heard the rustling of a discarded newspaper in the darkness, and she clung to her older sister. "Is it a bat? It's a bat! Is it in my mane?"

Her father laughed at his youngest daughter's discomfiture. "Barberry, really! Scared of bats? Why, bats are one of our beloved Princess' favored creatures."

"Y-y-yeah, Daddy," the young foal stammered. "But they're... really creepy."

Her sister put her foreleg around her. "Come, Darling, don't fret about it. Your big sis is here to protect you!" She gave a wide grin.

For a moment Barberry seemed to be calmed by her sister's words. When the sound of the beating of large wings seemed to issue from the darkness of the alleyway nearest them, however, she screamed and leaped onto her sister's back. "Giant bat!"

Barberry's father rolled his eyes. "Now, Barberry, you really have nothing to be afraid of. Here, let me show you."

"D-dear," Barberry's mother said, grabbing her husband's foreleg. "Maybe you shouldn't..."

"Oh, now, don't you start being ridiculous, Love." Barberry's father shrugged off her hoof and gave his family a confident grin before trotting casually into the blackness. "You see?" his voice echoed from the alley. "Nothing here but... giant bat!" Like a rat out of Tartaros, the stallion burst from the murk, his fine tie and collar torn, and he ripped past his family, galloping like a madhorse.

Barberry, her sister, and her mother, all screamed as a huge figure which did, indeed, resemble a giant bat soared over their heads and landed between them and their scurrying patriarch. The glint of what might have been claws flashed in the moonlight and Barberry's mother's necklace was cut from her neck. The singing of metal accompanied the next slash and the jeweled broach was liberated from her sister's blouse. In another blur of movement, the large figure descended on Barberry, herself.

The beast halted, a bird-shaped razorang held against Barberry's neck. Now that the creature was still, the mares could see that it was a largely silver and blue bipedal monstrosity, with blade-like wings and a horned head. Its bulbous eyes turned to regard Barberry's sister. "Well," it spoke in a deep, raspy voice. "Isn't this a familiar scenario? My mother and younger sibling were killed in front of my eyes. My father stood back and let it happen. Tell me, little pony, if I kill your sister and mother, what would you do? Would you take your revenge on me or would you punish your father for his cowardice?"

After a long moment in which the young mare merely shivered in horror at the thing in front of her, Barberry broke the silence. Her voice quavered as she spoke. "G-g-giant... t-t-talking... b-b-b-bat!"

The creature scowled, or at least seemed to though the mares couldn't be sure given its completely alien facial features. "What, are you dense? Are you retarded or something? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm the Goddamn Owlman!" His mouth cracking into a toothy grin. "And owls eat bats for breakfast." With a snort he snatched Barberry's ruby barrette and removed a strange device from his belt, pointing it toward the rooftops. A puff of smoke burst from the muzzle, followed by some sort of claw attached to a cord, and in another instant he was being pulled up and away.

All was silent in the street, and it was as if the monster had never descended on them until Barberry lost consciousness.


Minutes later, Owlman considered his plunder from the safety of a nearby rooftop. It had been only natural for him, after finding himself suddenly in another world without access to his own private fortune, to fall back on tried and true methods for obtaining revenue. Of course, he had been ignoring one glaringly obvious fact up until this moment. "How am I going to sell these in a world inhabited by small talking ponies?" He shook his head. Regardless of the obvious differences in species, this was a city and cities had black markets. Owlman was a master criminal, wasn't he? Boss Gordon would have been capped long ago if not for Owlman's prowess. If there was a black market, he would find a way to sell his pilfered goods.

Owlman tapped the device on his wrist, and a holographic projection flared to life. It was static, unfortunately. "Maybe with a little cash in my utility belt," he muttered to himself. "I can acquire the parts to fix this damned thing and get the hell outta this world." He snarled into the static as he recalled the fiasco that led him here. "Ultraman, you jealous bastard. I'll get you for this when I return. And I will return." He shut off the device and secured the jewelry to himself.

He leaped off the roof.


"And now, fillies and gentlecolts, watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Dinky removes the ring and the card!" The blonde unicorn filly did just as she said, using her hoof to lift off a ring and card that were sitting on top of yet another ring. In the center of the ring the gathered foals could see nothing but the paper underneath. "Behold! The bit has vanished without a trace!"

"H-hey!" Silver Spoon squeaked petulantly. "My bit! Bring it back!"

Dinky laughed. "Bringing back that which has been banished to the Void is no easy task, but for the Great and Powerful Dinky it is mere foal's play! Observe!" She placed the card and the ring back on top of the bottom ring and waved her hooves over them, her brows knit with concentration. Then, she slammed her hooves on the table, causing the rings and card to jump to the side, revealing the silver coin laying underneath.

The foals clopped their hooves and cheered as Silver Spoon gathered up her bit and hugged it, nuzzling it to her cheek.

"She's really gotten very good at this," Cheerilee said with a giggle as she looked back at her friends. Ditzy, Dinky's mother, and Trixie, the showmare who had taught Dinky the magic trick, both looked on the foal with pride in their eyes. "She's probably the most popular filly in school right now. Even Diamond Tiara thinks she's groovy. I mean... cool."

"Well," Trixie said with a satisfied smirk. "She was taught by the greatest showmare Equestria's ever seen. Of course she'd be good." She glanced at Ditzy and had the decency to look sheepish. "Of course, she is pretty quick on the uptake. Gets it from her mother, I'm sure."

Ditzy smiled at her friend. "You really have been great with her, though."

"I'm impressed, myself," Cheerilee said. "Maybe you should get your teaching license and become the learned and enlightening Trixie." She fixed her friends with a coltish grin.

The two mares burst into laughter, Ditzy having to hold onto Trixie's side to prevent her from collapsing to the ground. Trixie wiped the tears from her eyes and gasped for breath before saying, "Oh, wow. That was a good one. Me: a teacher? Ha!"

"Well," Cheerilee said with a chuckle. "I wasn't being entirely insincere. You really are good with the foals." She innocently looked into the sky. "I bet you'd make a wonderful mother, some day."

Trixie stopped laughing immediately. A shudder ran down her spine. "That's not funny, Cheerilee. Why would you even say that?" Her face began to turn green as her mind began contemplating the possibilities. "The things a mare has to do to have a foal... ugh..."

"Well, the eleven months before birth aren't the most enjoyable," Ditzy said. "But actually making the foal is pretty fun."

"Ewwwww," Trixie said, sticking her tongue out in disgust. "You two are just making fun of me, now, aren't you?"

"Maybe a little," Cheerilee said with a cheeky grin.

"Bet I could!" came Dinky's insistent voice, drawing the adults' attention to her.

"I don't think so," Applebloom was saying, turning her muzzle up. "I reckon no magician could do that."

Trixie trotted up to the foals, a bemused look on her face. "Don't be so sure, my little pony. A true magician can do... well... just about anything." She removed her hat and tapped it on the side. Confetti burst from the bottom and wrapped bonbons poured out to the cheers of the foals.

"Well, their parents are going to hate me when they get home," Cheerilee said as she joined Trixie while the foals descended on the candy. She frowned as she noted a poofy pink tail in their midst. "Hey, that's for the foals!"

"Aw, c'mon!" the very adult mare complained as she popped out of the group with bonbons packed tightly in her cheeks, giving her the appearance of a squirrel storing nuts. "Confetti and candy? You might as well have shone a spotlight with my cutie mark in the sky."

Trixie rolled her eyes as the random pony bounced away. "Anyway, what were you saying 'no magician could do,' Applebloom?"

"Oh." Applebloom blushed. "Well, there's been some kinda crime spree all over Manehattan, the Broncs, Princesses... well, pretty much the whole Big Orange. Thing is, this robber's breakin' into high security vaults and stuff without trippin' any alarms, an' they even tried watchin' this big ol' fire ruby with special scryin' spells an' magic dispersal thingies, an' they had some captain of the Royal Guard there an' ever'thin'! Next mornin' they found out that the ruby'd been replaced by some fake."

Trixie narrowed her eyes and scratched her chin pensively. "So... somepony's using a bit of sleight of hoof to pull off high stakes heists? That... that would be pretty difficult, but not impossible... theoretically."

"That ain't the half of it, though," Applebloom insisted. "They say the pony that's doin' it ain't a pony at all. They always see some big bird thing flyin' away from the crime scene. Th'authories think it's some rogue griffin, but I know what it really is!"

"Do you?" Trixie said.

"Yeah!" Applebloom said with a vigorous nod. "My cousin from Manehattan saw it, herself. She wrote me all about it an' said it was this crazy cannibal bat about ten times the size of a pony, but it thought it was an owl. Oh, an' it talked, too, an' it had metal wings, an' arms with some kinda weird paws, an' it walked on these two really long legs."

"What, like Ly—" Trixie cut herself off, puffing out her cheeks as she realized what she had been about to let spill. "I mean... like dragons or something?"

"Yeah, I guess," Applebloom said. "She said it took her an' her family's jewelry an' then flew off. Everypony at her school is makin' fun of her 'cause they think it's just some trick with smoke an' mirrors."

Trixie narrowed her eyes in thought. "Uh, huh..."

"But I don't think all that can just be a trick. Besides, I know my cousin wouldn't lie to me. We been pen pals since we could write, an' she ain't never lied or exaggerated or nothin'."

"Didn't she tell you she was nominated prom queen last year?" Scootaloo asked with a smirk.

"Sh-she was!" Applebloom said. "You ain't got no proof she wasn't!"

"Well," Trixie said, putting a hoof to her chin. "I might need some kind of dummy for the creature... maybe some strings? No, no, that's too amateur..."

"Y'see?" Applebloom whispered to Dinky. "I told you nopony could fake that."

"Nonsense!" Trixie declared. "I know exactly how I could recreate such an illusion. It would be a bit taxing to use so many illusion spells at once, though I think if it were dark I wouldn't have to put too much effort into the visual quality, and as long as I didn't have to maintain it for too long..."

"That seems like a lot of work to scare a random family, don't you think?" Ditzy asked.

Trixie nodded. "True. But for a magician, the performance is everything. Did I ever tell you about this particular showmare who pretended to be crippled her entire career just to pull off one trick believably?"

"Probably," Cheerilee said. "But I've been around enough not to discount sightings of strange creatures. I don't think we should necessarily discount this... delusional cannibal bat... out of hoof."

"Pff." Trixie waved her hoof at the schoolteacher dismissively. "I would think that if there were really a huge pony-eating bat—"

"'Bat-eating bat," Cheerilee corrected. "'Cannibal means a creature that eats its own kind, not that eats ponies as is often thought."

"Whatever," Trixie said irately, crossing her forelegs across her barrel. "If there were really some giant bat-eating bat that thought it was an owl flying around robbing ponies and high-security facilities, I would think Princess Luna would have said something, by now."

As if in response, a flash of light and smoke came from the inside of her hat, which she had still not placed back on her head. Trixie's left eye twitched as the other ponies stared expectantly. "Th-that letter could be about anything."


"Hey, Trix', what's the...?" Raindrops found herself suddenly spinning in midair as her friend galloped past her like a madmare. She barely had time to stop her eyes from rolling around randomly in her skull when Trixie returned, grabbed her by the leg, and began to drag her along. "H-hey! Is there a reason you're trying to foalnap me? Is it your time of the year, or what?"

"You know what?" Trixie said. "I'm going to ignore that lewd comment in favor of getting to my house as fast as possible."

"Wh-whoa," Raindrops said, a blush forming on her cheeks. "I... I was just kidding about... I mean, I didn't think you were actually..."

"Cheerilee's getting Lyra," Trixie explained. "And Ditzy's getting Carrot Top. We're all meeting at my place in ten minutes."

Raindrops stared blankly at the mare dragging her across Ponyville. Okay, so either Trixie's done a complete one-eighty or my mind was in the gutter again and we've got Elements of Harmony business, she thought. Yeah, option number two's probably safer. "So what's the situation?"

Trixie quickly filled her in on what she had heard from Applebloom as well as the letter she had received from Princess Luna confirming it. "She wants us to go do our Knights of the Realm thing and find a way to stop whatever's doing this. She's not sure if this thing's really some kind of monster nopony's ever seen before, but she also doesn't want to rule anything out." She slowed as they approached her house, spotting Cheerilee, Lyra, and Lyra's girlfriend, BonBon, standing at her door already. "If it really is some weird monster—hay, even if it's a pony—her best guess is that it's using some kind of black magic, which the Elements of Harmony are perfectly suited for defeating," she concluded. "Hay, girls."

"Hay, Trixie," Lyra greeted. "So, Luna wants us to defeat a crazy owl-bat?"

"Something like that," Trixie said as she opened the door. "Hopefully, Ditzy and Carrot Top will get here soon."

"Should be," Lyra said. "We just got here, ourselves, and CT's not that hard to find."

The Trixie and her four friends entered the domicile of the Representative of the Night Court, where they were greeted by Pokey Pierce, Trixie's hot-blooded unicorn assistant, who seemed to be doing paperwork in his own special way. "Trixie!" he exclaimed as he thrust his horn into a stack of papers that was easily the thickness of the Canterlot Directory. "I've finally done it! My horn has the power to pierce seven hundred fifty sheets of legal documents. That's three inches of bureaucratic balderdash. It won't be long now before my horn will be the one that will pierce the heavens!"

"O... kay," Trixie said. "I can't say I'm not impressed, but did you have to practice on our paperwork? I mean, shouldn't you be doing... I don't know... work?"

"But I am," Pokey said with a smirk. His horn began to glow and he shook his head around, causing the stack of paper sitting atop his head to be shred to pieces. The remains floated into a box at the stallion's hooves. "Those papers were destined for the shred box, anyway."

"Sure, why not?" Trixie rolled her eyes and trotted up to her assistant. "Look, Pokey, you've been really stepping up to the plate recently, and I appreciate that. In fact, you've done such a good job that I'm going to help you out." She gave him a pleasant grin. "My friends and I have been put on a special assignment, very hush-hush you understand, and I'm going to leave you in charge. I really think you can handle it for a week or... however long it's going to take to handle this."

Pokey stared at her for a moment. "Okay. First, I do about ninety five percent of your job, anyway, the other five percent being signing documents. Second, how exactly is that going to help me?"

"Well," Trixie said with a nervous laugh. "If you show that you can handle this place on your own, it'll look pretty good when you come up for promotion."

"Promotion?" Pokey's eyes narrowed in skeptical scrutiny. "Which would come with some kind of pay raise?"

Trixie didn't meet his eyes. "It would come with a much fancier title, which is almost as good, really. I mean, think about it: you're hanging around at your favorite hangout spot when somepony special catches your eye. You go up to that pony and you say, 'how do you do? I'm Vice Representative Pokey Pierce. I'm kind of a big deal.'"

"So I can sound like a pompous ass?" Pokey asked. He turned to a somewhat grumpy looking jack who had been passing by the window. "No offense."

"None taken," the donkey said with a wave of his hoof.

Pokey turned back to Trixie. "Alright, I suppose I might as well. But next time you have an awesome adventure, I want in."

Trixie shook her assistant's hoof. "Deal." Trixie then pumped her hoof in the air in an impromptu victory celebration. "Woo-hoo! Time to save Equestria."

"Is that what this is about?" Carrot Top asked as she entered the house with Ditzy right behind her. "Ditzy's explanation was... a bit confusing."

"I'll fill you in on the train ride to Manehattan," Trixie said, and with a pat of her hat six tickets dropped into her waiting hoof. "I'll also tell you my ingenious plan for catching our crafty criminal."

To be continued in Act II.

Next Chapter: Act II: A Dark Knight Eclipsed Estimated time remaining: 38 Minutes
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