Temple of Fear.
The sight that greeted the ponies eyes once the sandstorm died down was so terrible that they nearly passed out just looking at it. Bodies of humans were lying everywhere, some in very disturbing positions. Blood caked the ground and dismembered body parts floated in the blood. The sky was also blood red and looked as if hell itself had taken over the world. The ground was barren and devoid of life, figures in costumes like Batman were impaled on pikes.
ha ha ha ha...
In the distance, the ponies could see humans all sitting in some sort of Movie Theater, chained together and bleeding. But that wasn't what spooked the ponies. What scared them was that every person there had a huge smile on his or her face, while some odd puppet show was being played for them. One of the puppets hit the other, resulting in laughter from the crowd. But it wasn't joyous laughter, it was deranged laughter. The people laughed so hard tears streamed down their faces, ruining the make-up all of them where wearing. Some even fell over dead from laughing so hard, the sick smile still etched onto their faces.The ponies looked away from the people and towards the horizon, where a majestic city was burning to the ground.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...
Resisting the urge to throw up her insides, Twilight and the others looked at Batman. Much to their surprise, he seemed completely oblivious to the suffering around him. His eyes were focused forward, in an expression of pure hatred. The ponies followed his gaze and gasped at where it ended. A throne made of smiling corpses had been erected in the center of the carnage, rising about ten feet in the air. What grabbed the ponies attention the most was who was sitting on the throne.
HA HA HA HA HA!
A human in a purple suit and purple shoes was seated comfortably on his throne. He held a deck of playing cards in his hands, but was tossing most of them aside. On his shoulder rested a black crow. But his appearance is what shocked the ponies the most, though. His hair was a vivid shade of green, his face was as white as chalk and it seemed that a permanent smile was drawn onto his face. He was humming a happy tune to himself as he tossed the last three cards away. The last one he held was the...
"Joker," Batman growled in a deep voice. The man known as Joker looked at Batman and a real smile crossed his face. He tossed away the card as he greeted Batman.
"Batsy, old chum! It is so great to see you again!" he said with a huge smile on his face. Batman answered with a snarl.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be-"
"Dead? Why, I am dead, Batsy. I'm as dead as your sense of humor. As you can see it has done wonders for my complexion. But the reason I'm here is because you don't want me to be dead. After all," he said in fake sadness, "you are my only friend."
"We are not friends. Why are you really here?!"
"Because Batman, I am your greatest fear." Joker said with a very sick smile.
"I don't fear you," Batman responded with a deep growl.
"Of course you don't, your fear goes much deeper. But this magical place brought me back just so I could show you. And the best part is we have an audience to watch with us," Joker laughed, gesturing towards the mane six. The ponies were shocked that this Joker knew that they were there. They were shocked even further when a barrier sprung around them when they tried to advance.
"Now now, we can't have you interrupt the performance," Joker smiled, turning back to Batman. "So, shall we get this movie under way?"
"I don't fear you or whatever you have up your sleeve," Batman snarled. Joker raised his arm and began to shake it.
"Nothing up that sleeve. And...nothing up this one either. Well, how about we begin by reintroducing you to some old friends!"
Batman spun around as a figure materialized out of thin air. He was a massive man with muscles all over his body and a bunch of green tubes coming out of his back. Batman recognized him instantly. Bane. But what was in the man's arms is what shocked him the most. He was carrying the body of Robin, which the man tossed at his feet.
"You fear losing to evil, Batsy. You fear that you never make any real progress on your little... crusade," Joker whispered with a smile. Three more figures came out of the shadows, each a villain Batman recognized. Killer Croc. Poison Ivy. Ra's Al-Ghul. And with each of them came a different body, which was tossed at his feet. Commissioner Gordon. Oracle. Nightwing. Seeing the bodies of his closest friends was to much for Batman. He roared and charged Joker, who responded by clapping his hands.
"You fear the death of those close to you. Even when it is you who is responsible for their demise." Killer Croc intercepted Batman and smashed into his side. Batman rolled to recover and kicked Croc in the jaw. Before he could launch another attack, he felt Poison Ivy's plants wrap around his legs and they pulled him towards her. She used her mastery over plants to slash at Batman, tearing his suit and cape. Using his bladed gauntlets to hack at the plants and free himself, he closed the distance and tossed Ivy across the room. He was still recovering when a blade cut through his cape. Ra's brought his blade down again across Batman's chest, slashing through the suit. Batman managed to get back in time in order to avoid a fatal blow, but the gash sent blood everywhere. The ponies let out a gasp, except for Fluttershy, who was trying her best not to cry. Batman staggered back into Bane, who lifted Batman up with one hand and slammed him into the dirt at his feet, right in front of his fallen comrades. Joker smiled as Batman coughed up blood, struggling to escape Bane's crushing grip. Joker clapped his hands again and the four villians backed off. Batman slowly rose to his feet as Joker continued to talk.
"But all these fears you might be able to get over, but I know the one you can't. Are you ready, Batsy?" Joker asked with an evil smile. He clapped his hands and the whole room changed. The room was now a dark alley, with a sign reading 'Park Row' on one of the lamppost. It was raining. In the rain stood three figures, two adults and a child. The Ponies gasped when they realized that the child was Batman. Joker chuckled as Bruce Wayne's eyes grew, realizing what memory he was now in.
"Yes, what you truly fear is that you don't deserve to be alive. You believe that you should have died with your parents on that night, instead of having to live with yourself for surviving. You fear being helpless when you are needed the most," he whispered as Bruce stared at his parents, who were walking ahead of him. Joker reached inside his vest and pulled out a hand gun, aimed straight for the Wayne’s. The ponies looked confused, none of them having any idea about what Joker was saying. Except for Fluttershy, she knew exactly what was about to happen.
"NO!" she screamed as Joker pulled the trigger twice.
BANG! BANG!
"NO!" young Bruce echoed Fluttershy as his parents fell to the ground. As the scene from Batman's child hood replayed itself, Bruce stood there, once again dying on the inside, with tears falling freely from his face. Joker began to laugh his maniacal laugh, which began to echo off the walls like the gunshots.
"This is what you fear, Brucy. You fear failure. But what have you done except fail? You failed to save your parents." As Joker said this, a chain burst from the ground, wrapping around Bruce's arm. The chain pulled down, nearly bringing the orphan to his knees.
"You failed to save your little birdy and the love of your life!" Another chain shot out of the ground, wrapping around Bruce's other arm, this time it dragged him to his knees. The young boy didn't even try to resist. He just stared at where his parents bodies had fallen, with the silent tears rolling down his crestfallen face. To say the ponies were shocked was an understatement. Fluttershy was crying herself, not even trying to hide it. The others just looked away, unable to witness the cruel acts.
"And worst of all, you failed to save the greatest, funniest and if I might add the downright most handsome guy in the entire world. ME!" Joker yelled out, letting his laughter once again fill the room, unable to keep the joy in. One last chain burst from the ground, wrapping itself around Bruce's neck. The weight pulled his head down, finally brining him down. The ponies that could looked at the scene in tears, looking at the beaten Batman. Joker continued to laugh for a good minute, before getting back to business. His face turned serious and fell into a frown.
"And to think Batman, all this could have been avoided if you had just crossed that sorry excuse of a line and killed me long ago. If you had, Talia would still be alive, as well as that child you took in, Jason. But nnnnoooooo. You had to be the righteous one, always refusing to kill, even those who deserved it." Then another huge smile broke out across his face and he chuckled to himself. "But it doesn’t matter now does it? Because I finally won. Here you are, laying beaten and crying in front of me. Hell, I beat you while I was dead! And the best part? You still failed you're friends. You still failed those who fight alongside you. And when it comes down to it, you'll fail to save these ponies as well," he said with a smile.
"Say, that reminds me of a joke. What do you call it when I go to Ponyville and kill everypony there, except for one that I'll leave bleeding and crying in the street? Give up? You call it a one horse town! BUUUWWWHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Joked burst out laughing, trying hard not to fall out of his throne. The ponies simply stared, not believing that some pony so evil could possible exist. They others were so focused on Joker, that none of them noticed that Bruce had gotten back to his feet.
SNAP!
With a flex of his right arm, the chain wrapped around it snapped off. Joker stopped laughing and looked at Bruce, disbelief in his eyes. The ponies were just as shocked, watching as he snapped off the other chain.
SNAP!
"What's going on here?" Joker asked as Bruce snapped off the third chain. SNAP! Bruce looked up at Joker, lightining flashing in the young boys eyes.
A flash of real lightning then engulfed the chamber, blinding everyone there. When the light died down, Batman was standing where Bruce Wayne had been only a moment before. The ponies couldn't believe their eyes as Batman slowly moved towards Joker. What stunned them the most was the look in his eyes. It was the look that he had given them right before he brought them down. The look of a very dangerous and very angry man.
"What are you fools waiting for, a party invite? GET HIM!" Joker yelled at the other villains. Bane roared and charge at Batman. Batman spun on his toe and delivered a thunderous roundhouse to Bane's head. The moment Batman connected, Bane was blasted apart into dust. Joker's eyes widened in shock.
"Ivy, stop him!" Poison Ivy lashed out with her plants, trying to impale the bat. Batman pulled out his explosive gel and flipped over the plants, spraying the explosives on them as he passed. He detonated the gel, causing the plants to be turned into mulch. Ivy barely had time to scream in rage before Batman whipped out the bat-claw and grappled her into one of his most powerful clotheslines, blasting her apart into sand.
Ra's Al-Ghul lunged at Batman next, swinging his sword faster than the ponies could see. To their increasing disbelief Batman moved even faster than the sword strikes, blocking each blow with precision timing. He caught a swing in his hands and snapped the blade out of Ra's hand, before spinning around and striking Ra's head with the hilt of the sword. Ra's burst into sand like the others, leaving only Croc and Joker.
Croc roared and charged Batman, arms outstretched to catch the bat no matter where he tried to dodge. Batman rushed Croc and punched him in the head, knocking him back. Batman brought Ra's sword down on Crocs head, whose skin was thick enough not to be pierced by the blade, but he still suffered a hammer like blow. As Croc stumbled, Batman tossed the sword aside and kicked Croc below the belt. When Croc opened his mouth to roar in pain, Batman fired three blasts from the REC into it. The electricity surged through Croc's body, causing him to twitch uncontrollably. When the electricity ran its course, he fell to his knees and turned back into sand.
Joker staggered back as Batman turned and headed towards him. The crow on Joker's shoulder took off, flying into the darkness. Joker didn't even notice, his eyes still glued on his "fallen" advisary.
"Is this a joke, Bats? Because if it is, it's not funny!" Joker yelled in rage. He pulled out his handgun and started firing into Batman's chest. But as the bullets struck the Dark Knight, they vanished into sand as well. Joker fired and fired until the gun started clicking. He lowered the gun and stared at Batman.
"How? I had you beaten. I won! So why are you still standing? WHY WON'T YOU LOSE?!"
Then Batman began laughing. His laugh wasn't like Jokers, which was crazy and wild. His was dark, devoid of joy and instilled the ponies with a greater sense of fear than Joker's laugh ever had.
"How do I do it, Joker? You seem to be forgetting what I told you all those years ago," Batman said with a smile on his face. Then the smile turned into one of the most frightening faces the ponies had ever seen. It was the face of The Batman.
"I told you that I'd never let you win," Batman snarled, charging the Joker. Joker whipped a knife out from his coat and brought it up into Batman's ribs. Batman roared, not with pain but fury. He brought a punch so powerful into Joker's face that even Superman would've felt it. The Joker was launched from his throne and landed a good ten yards away. As he lay beaten on the ground, he started to disappear into sand. Joker looked down at his now vanishing body and a smile crossed his face. And before the clown prince of crime vanished for good, he let out one last laugh.
"ha ha ha ha ha ha. ah Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. BUWWWAAAHAHAHAHA!" and with his last laugh, Joker vanished into the sand. Following Joker's lead, the rest of the illiusion crumbled under the bat's wrath. Only when the room was back to normal did Batman whisper the last word.
"Never."
And with that, Batman fell to his knees exhausted. The ponies, now realizing that they were free from the barrier, rushed to his side. The wounds that he had suffered during the fight had healed, yet his suit was still shredded. Fluttershy was making sure that he hadn't received any permanent damage. The other ponies hung back, still trying to process what they had just witnessed. After a minute, he stood up, but was still shaky. The mighty door creaked open, revealing a path to the center. Batman began to head down it, when he realized the others weren't following him. He turned to look at them and saw the concern on their faces. Twilight was the first to speak.
"Batman, who-...what was that?" she whispered.
"That was the Joker. He is the definition of evil," he said in a quiet voice. Rainbow asked the next question in a shaky voice.
"What was that scene where you were...you were a foal?"
Batman took a deep breath before speaking. "When I was eight years old, my parents took me to see a movie. When it ended, we took a back alley to the car instead of the main sidewalk. And my parents were killed by a mugger with a gun." He watched their faces as the weight of his words hit them. "On that night as I knelt in my parents blood in that dark alley, I swore that I would dedicate the rest of my life to eradicating the evil in my city that took their lives. That is how I became Batman." Fluttershy asked the final question.
"Why didn't you kill him like he said you should've? Why keep someone as evil as him alive?"
Batman thought for a while about his answer. When he spoke, it was in a quiet voice. "Because I promised myself that I as long as I was still breathing that I would do everything in my power to save as many lives as I could. Even those who didn't deserve it."
Fluttershy looks at Batman in a new state of awe. Here was a person who had gone through so much suffering in his life. He had lost his parents, his friends and even his love. Yet he still fought to keep others safe, to keep evil at bay. Fluttershy had thought with herself doubts and cowardice that she had known what pain was. She realizes that she knew nothing about true pain. Batman had gone through so much in his life, with no one to comfort him or try to help. So she did the only thing that she could think of; she hugged him.
Batman barely raised his eyebrows. He had been expecting this from Fluttershy, but what happened next surprised even him. The other five ponies walked over and joined the in the hug. Each of them looked up at him with the same look of sympathy in their eyes that he had seen in Fluttershy's back at Twilight's house. Fluttershy and the others eventually let go, each of them wiping tears from their eyes.
"I was wrong Batman," Twilight began, trying not to cry. "I thought that you might be a good guy. I never would've believed that you were such a tragic soul." The others could only nod their heads in agreement. "You are a lot stronger than I would've given you credit for." He paused for a minute, before remembering the mission.
"As much as I appreciate the concern, we do have an artifact to grab," he pointed out. Twiligh looked at him in shock.
"You just finished facing your greatest fear! You just re-lived the hardest moment of your life! How can you just forget that and move on?"
"Simple. Because I have to." He turned and walked through the now open door, leaving six awestruck ponies behind him.
====------======
After a few minutes of talking to each other, the ponies finally headed through the door to where Batman had headed.
"How does he do it," Rarity asked, unable to believe the amount of suffering the bat had gone through.
"Maybe we'll ask him later," Fluttershy responded as they entered the chamber. The first thing the ponies noticed was that Batman had just been tossed through the air and landed with a hard thud right next to them. They cried out and ran over to him as he struggled to get up.
"What happened?!" AJ asked. Batman glared across the room.
"She did," Batman grunted. The ponies looked over and saw their foe standing on the Star-Swirl statue.
"Morgaine."