A Dark Knight for Equestria

by Onomonopia


Fire in the Night

Canterlot, Royal Sister’s Chamber.

In the royal halls of Canterlot, a certain white alicorn walked down the hallway to her sister’s room. She was Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria, as well as the princess that controlled the sun. The reason she was on her way to her sister’s chamber is that the moon had still not begun its descent, even though it was morning. Reaching the doors to Luna's room, Celestia wondered why her sister left the moon up. Taking a deep breath, she opened the doors.

"Luna, why is the moon still in the sky?" asked Celestia, walking into the room, "It is time for the sun--LUNA!"

Luna, Celestia's sister, the one who raised and lowered the moon, was on the floor writhing in pain. Celestia was quickly at her sister’s side, not sure what to do. Luna's eyes were closed, she was covered in sweat and her horn was glowing with an odd color. As Celestia watched, Luna began to breathe easier and the pain seemed to be passing. Still worried over her sister’s wellbeing, Celestia used her wing to pull her close. After five minutes, Luna finally stopped trembling.

"Luna?" Celestia asked, concern for her sister filling her voice, "What happened?"

Luna turned her head to look at Celestia. Looking into her eyes, Celestia saw pain, exhaustion, and most importantly, fear.

"We do not know what happened," Luna began, taking heavy breaths in between words. "We were about to lower the moon for the morning when we felt a strange surge of energy. When we used our power to investigate, pain flooded our body and mind. We felt so many different emotions, but we discerned two beings amongst the torrents of pain. Beings that do not belong here."

Luna shuddered and laid her head down on the floor. Celestia lay next to her thinking about what she said. She had to see if Luna knew any more.

Gently, Celestia asked, "Luna, I know it's difficult, but can you tell me anything else about these two...'creatures'?"

Luna inhaled, then began, "Both beings felt as if they do not belong here. They are not of this world. One of them has tremendous, dark magical power. That one is probably what caused the magical disturbance. Its magical abilities tore through our spell and placed us in this weakened state. The other... the other one was different. Its emotions overpowered us as we tried to find out what it was. We could feel hatred, suffering, loneliness, and a desire for vengeance. Between the first's magical power and the second’s emotional suffering, we were quickly over-whelmed."

Celestia could not believe what she was hearing. Two powerful beings had come into Equestria? Powerful enough to overpower her sister's magic with just emotions and presence. These beings had to be found and, if necessary, taken care of. Looking down at her sister, Celestia rose to her hooves.

"Do not worry, dear sister. I will get our unicorns to locate the source of the two disturbances. You rest for now." Celestia left the bed chamber, heading for the unicorns who dealt with magical disturbances. Luna remained laying on the floor, still in a shocked state. Finally, after a few minutes, she arose and walked over to window to see the sun, which was only now beginning to rise. She felt ashamed with herself; ashamed because she had left out one important detail.

Both creatures were stronger than Celestia.

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Manehatten.

Bright, multi-colored, talking horses…

…That was the only thought that came to Batman's mind after a few minutes in the city. As he entered, he noticed the city was a little smaller than the ones he was used to. There were still the tall buildings, the long streets, and the alleyways he spent many a night fighting scum in. Even with all the similarities, something about the city felt off to him. Since the sun had only just begun to rise, there were still plenty of shadows for him to stick to. The sun was only just up, but a city of this size should be awake “twenty-four seven.”

"Where are all the people?" he muttered to himself.

Batman continued to move through the shadows until he reached what looked like the city’s park. The park was similar to every other park he had seen. Well, parks he had seen outside of Gotham. Gotham City Park was covered in weeds, the statue was defaced with obscure references, and no sane person would go there after dark. It was one of his favorite spots in the city. Still thinking about Gotham, Batman didn't hear the hoof clops on the road until they were fairly close. Snapping out of his reverie, Batman moved closer into the shadows.

Staying close to the wall, Batman was practically invisible. ‘Sounds like mounted officers,’ He thought. ‘I don't know what kind of police force these people have, but if they’re anything like others I've met, it's best I stay hidden.’

Only when he heard the horse’s hooves turn to the left, away from where he was hiding, did he decide to take a peek at what the people looked like.

The answer nearly blew his mind.

There were three horses, all with pure white coats, in gold armor and moving as a unit. As he continued to watch, they began talking to each other. The scariest part was he understood them.

"I'm so bored, nothing ever happens here," the smallest one complained.

"This is Equestria, nothing has happened since the changelings attack a few months back," the biggest horse replied, "and you saw how effective the guards were in that situation."

‘So these horses not only talk, but seem to be part of a guard unit,’ thought Batman, ‘How... unusual.’

Alternate realities were nothing new to Batman. He had been to many alternate realities in his time with the Justice League, but had yet to see anything as weird as talking horses that looked like they were from a five year old child’s mind.

"Okay, you two, how about we head back to the barracks. If we hurry, there might be some hot water left in the showers." The horse with a silver cross on his armor had spoken, getting an instant response from the other two.

"Sir, yes sir!" the other two replied in unison.

As the horses trotted away, Batman used the zoom feature on his cowl to get a better look. Two of the horses looked similar to what a horse on earth might look like. The third however, had two folded wings on its back, making it a...

"Pegasus," muttered Batman. He had been around pegasi a few times in his life, but none of them had ever talked. Using the zoom to look across the park, he saw other horses beginning to leave their homes. The horses were each a different color, some ranging from traditional brown to others that were bright purple—‘bright purple?’ They all had unusually large eyes and could talk like the guards. The most interesting point was that on each of their hind ends was an odd mark. The marks were a picture of something. One of the marks looked like three stacked gold coins, while another was a paint brush. Not all of the horses wore clothes, but the ones that did looked more sophisticated than the rest. So, even amongst horses, there was still an upper and lower class.

Batman would have continued with his observations, but as the sun got higher in the sky, his hiding place began to disappear. Pulling his grapple out of his belt, he launched the hook at the roof of a nearby building and pulled himself to it. Seeing as he wasn't spotted, he performed the procedure twice more, until he was on a fairly tall building.

"They probably won't notice me up here," he muttered to himself. Looking to his right, he was surprised when an old friend greeted him. A gargoyle was on each corner of this building. Placing himself next to the familiar face, he re-engaged his zoom feature and continued to observe. He saw horses of all kinds, including more with wings, as well as regular looking horses. He continued scanning when his eyes fell upon...

"A unicorn?" he said, surprised.

Apparently, this land had all forms of horse here. As he continued to scan, the cowl took video recording of what he saw, so he could examine it back at the Bat-Cave later. Placing a hand on his ear, he began to talk into the hidden microphone on his cowl.

"Alfred, are you seeing this? I seem to have ended up in a kid’s fantasy."

Batman received nothing but static in reply on his radio, so he tried his cryptographic sequencer. When he failed to connect to the Bat-Cave, the device turned off. Frowning, Batman realized he was cut off from the cave, a situation he did not like. Putting the device away, he returned his attention to the horses. While they weren't human, they behaved a lot like them. Each horse seemed to have their own personality, job and home. Some served food in restaurants; others looked like business men, with suits and briefcases. Some pulled a cart for other horses to move around in. A horse drawn carriage for horses. Go figure.

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The sun was beginning to set when Batman finished his observations. From what he had seen, there were three types of horses: regular, pegasi, and unicorns. The regular horses were stronger than the other two whereas the pegasi could fly. What had interested him the most was the fact unicorns could use magic. He watched as a maroon horse had lifted multiple bags with her power. Whenever they used their magic, he noticed that the horn on the unicorn would glow. All of them were intelligent, some more than others.

With all the information he needed for the time being, he got up to leave. As he turned, the sound of screams filled his ears. Instantly on guard, he ran across rooftops to the source of the screams, but he felt what the problem was before he saw it. One of the bigger buildings, one that looked like an apartment block, was on fire. Horses stood watching as the structure burnt, while guards kept the others back. Over the sound of the fire, he heard a voice, pleading with one of the guards.

"You don't understand, MY FOAL’S in there! You have to save him!" one of the horses, by the sound of her voice female, pleaded with a guard.

"Ma'am, the building could come down at any moment and the pegasi with the rain clouds won't be here for another ten minutes...I'm sorry there's nothing we can do," he responded gravely.

As she pleaded desperately, the figure watching on the rooftops was considering his options. If he went to help, he would probably be spotted and have to fight his way out of the city. On the other hand, if he didn't help, someone would die. It was no choice at all. Placing himself on the other side of the rooftop, he began to run towards the burning building.

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"I have to get in there! I have to SAVE HIM!" screamed the distraught mother.

Ma'am, I already told you," replied the stressed guard, "There is nothing we can do until the pegasi arrive with the rain clouds."

"That's not good enough, somepony needs to-"

"Holy Celestia," whispered one of the ponies watching. All ponies looked to where he was pointing. As they saw the creature, everypony went silent. Nopony knew what to think or how to react. It looked as if a monstrous bat had flown into the burning building.

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As Batman landed inside a burning room, he quickly took in his surroundings. The building’s structural supports had burned one-fourth of the way, giving him an estimated two minutes to find the foal before the whole place came down. Activating detective vision, he started to scan through the thick smoke. He had landed on the tenth floor out of twenty. Looking down, he saw no signs of life. Looking up, he saw the small outline of a skeleton huddled in a corner. The owner of the skeleton was three floors above him. One minute thirty to go.

Pulling out the grapple, Batman headed for the stairs. Seeing as they were still somewhat structurally sound, he raced up four steps at a time. He managed to get to the twelfth floor before they gave out. Using the grapple, he expertly hooked the roof of the thirteenth floor. Quickly pulling himself up, he ran towards the foal’s location, dodging burning objects and falling debris. One minute.

He burst through the door to the foal’s room. The horse was curled up in the fetal position, softly crying. Hearing a noise, however, it looked up, right at Batman.

As Batman approached the foal’s eyes grew huge, its jaw hung open and it instinctively pushed itself against the opposite wall. As Batman got closer, he noticed the eyes were filled, not with gratitude or curiosity, but pure terror. Batman thought back to the night his parents were murdered…the night he had the same look of terror in his young eyes. A man with a gun, that's all it took to strip him of his childhood…to set him on this path. All the pain he had to endure-

The building groaned, almost ready to collapse, snapping Batman out of his trance. Grabbing the petrified foal, he headed for the window and dove out of it, just as the building began to give way around them. They fell nearly thirteen stories before Batman used his cape to slow their fall. He touched down right in front of a crowd of startled horses, all staring at him in awe, terror, and wonder. Looking at the mother, he took the foal from under his cape and placed him on the ground. The young horse had recovered enough sense to run to his mother, where the two embraced, both crying. One of the guards was the first to speak.

"YOU THERE, HALT!" he yelled.

Spinning on his heels, Batman took off in the opposite direction, while four guards took off after him. They were fast, but Batman had a head start. Taking different side alleys and leaping over fences, Batman almost lost his pursuers, until one turn led him to a dead end. Batman sighed and slowly turned around as the four guards came skidding to a halt in front of him.

"You have nowhere to go now, creature," the officer spat, "We have you trapped."

Batman simply began stretching his shoulders and neck, while the guards looked at him, unsure how to handle him. Then, after cracking his knuckles, he looked at them and spoke six words…

"And you're going to regret it."

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Again please rate and review. I'm just beginning with fics, so I need all the help I can get.