The following morning, after having decided to sleep in, the fashion-obsessed pony known as Rarity was awakened by a loud knock at the door of her hotel room. She slowly trotted to the door as she wiped the crust from her eyelids.
"Hold your horses...." Rarity said with a yawn, "I've not even put on my fake eyelashes...I mean mascara...I mean I always look like this."
Rarity lazily turned the doorknob with her telekinetic horn and the door swung open to reveal a frantic looking Suri Polomare. Suri practically tackled Rarity as she leapt into the room.
"You've got to get out of here, m'kay!" Suri begged, "There's not much time."
"Suri...*yawn*...Polomare?" Rarity questioned, "What are you talking about?"
"You're in terrible danger, m'kay." Suri answered, "Coco's gone insane. All of Manehattan could be in trouble. Just take the first train back to Ponyville."
"I know what this is." Rarity said, "You're just trying to run me out of town because you're still bitter that you got found out."
"That's not it at all!" Suri continued, "You have to-"
"Someone's been stealing my act and I think you know why, horse!" a strange manic voice said from behind Suri.
Suri gasped and struggled as she felt herself being yanked by the throat. She was face to face with another human, an odd, menacing looking man in an old-fashioned purple suit. He had the same white pallor, green hair, and red lips that Coco now had and a disturbingly wide permanent grin. The worst thing about him was the malicious red tint behind his dark green eyes.
"I've been trailing you ever since I got dumped into this backwater fairytale!" the Joker explained, "You and that knockoff trying to step on my routine! But I lost track of little miss 'Diet Joker'. Bleh. How dare she try to cash in on my image?! I'll rip her lungs out! There's only one Joker in town!"
"What...what are you... talking...about....?" Suri struggled to say as the Joker's white hands clutched her throat, "Who...are...you?"
"Put her down this instant, you monster!" Rarity threatened, her horn glowing with anger.
Suri managed to kick the Joker in the stomach with her hind legs and wrest free from his grasp. The Joker keeled over and snarled, pulling out an absurdly long barreled revolver from under his coat.
"What is that thing?" Rarity questioned, "And why is it so long?"
"You'll find out." the Joker said as he aimed it right at her head.
Before the Clown Prince of Crime could fire a shot he was kicked from behind and collapsed to the floor. The "long-gun" flung from his hand and knocked against the wall. The Joker started to get up again only to feel a hoof stomping on his back.
"Miss Polomare is mine to torment, not yours." Coco, now back in her "Jester" outfit, warned, "I'm the only clown for this town."
"You..." the Joker growled, "You miserable little bootleg brat. Where do you get off stealing my routine?!"
"I can't explain it." Coco said, "All I know is that I want to make Manehattan great again."
"Dead political memes?!" the Joker questioned, "That's the best this story can come up with?!"
"Don't hate the player, hate the game." Coco quipped.
"Here's a real gag for you, Jared Leto!" the Joker yelled as he grabbed Coco's front hoof and pressed it into his electric joy buzzer.
Coco quivered uncontrollably as electricity surged through her body. Her eyes rolled back into her head and her tongue hung from her mouth as she sprawled on the floor, smoke rising from her singed fur.
"Coco!!" Suri yelped.
"She's dead..." Rarity whispered, tears trickling from her eyes, "You fiend..."
"She's been horsewhipped." the Joker said, "So who's next?"
Rarity charged at the Joker in a blind rage. He was about to fill her skull with as many volts as he could muster but suddely found himself slammed right into the wall. A familiar black glove grabbed him by the nape of his shirt.
"I'll break you in two!" Batman threatened, raising his fist.
"Yes, yes Batsy." the Joker mused, "You say that all the time. I kill a few people, we fight, you threaten to kill me, they throw me in Arkham, I escape, and then we start the whole game again. How many years have we been at this?"
"Maybe I won't kill you, but we're not in Gotham anymore." Batman warned, "The beings here might not hesitate."
"These puny little pacifists?" the Joker mocked, "They couldn't kill a joke. Get it? Killing joke?"
Batman punched the Joker in the jaw, making the clown's lips bleed but not much else. The mad clown then produced a stiletto blade from his sleeve, swiping Batman on the cheek, distracting him just enough to slip away to the staircase. Batman ran after his nemesis, leaving the three ponies to fend for themselves.
"Poor Coco..." Suri lamented, starting to cry herself, "How did this happen?"
"I can't...I just can't..." Rarity wept.
"But I can..." Coco whispered hoarsely.
"Coco! You're alive!" Rarity shouted in glee, hugging her friend's neck but then yelped after getting zapped by static residue, "Ouch!"
"Are you 'shocked' that I survived?" Coco asked as she got up back on her hooves, "It takes more than that to kill a pony."
"She's right." Suri noted, "Pegasi get struck by lightning all the time and shake it off."
"You scared us for a minute, darling." Rarity added.
"Good. I want you to be scared." Coco said, "This city deserves a better class of scary clown and I'm gonna give it to them."
"Snap out of it!" Rarity huffed, "What's gotten into you?"
"The same thing that's gonna get into you, Rariberry!" Coco said as she galloped away out of sight, "Smile-Smile-Smile!"
"Oh, like the song!" Rarity recalled, "Come on every pony, smile, smile, smile!"
"I wish it were that." Suri pondered, slipping into her "Batmare" voice, "I think she's going to flood the city with poison."