Temple of Fear.
Batman struggled back up to his feet, trying to ignore the pain that was now coursing through him. When he had arrived in the inner chamber, he had found Morgaine already there. Apparently she had blasted a hole in the roof and simply lowered herself in. She had been trying to get to the Stone of Reality, but when she had approached it a barrier had sprung up and prevented her from reaching it. While Morgaine was busy with the barrier, Trixie dealt with Batman.
"Batman, what happened?" Twilight asked. Batman answered with a roar and performed a kip-up, before charging at Morgaine. A wall of magical fire roared up in front of Batman, cutting him off from his target. With a snarl, he turned towards Trixie. Trixie gave him the signal to bring it, a signal that he accepted. He pulled out two anti-rangs and held them in his hands like blades, before charging the azure unicorn. He took only a few steps when the Elements of Harmony rushed in front of him.
"Out of my way!" he snarled at them.
"You need to get to Morgaine. Let us handle her high and mightiness," Twilight snapped back, keeping her eyes trained on Trixie. Batman nodded and rushed Morgaine. Trixie tried once again to cut off Batman's path, but before she could she had to erect a barrier to shield herself from one of Twilight's spell. Much to Trixie's surprise, the barrier cracked some from the spell.
"How?" Trixie asked. Twilight answered with an evil smile.
"You're not the only one who's gotten stronger." Twilight began to rapid fire spells, forcing Trixie to duck and dodge to avoid all the spells. She fired of a massive spell into the ground which resulted in stone spikes erupting from the floor, directed straight towards Twilight. Twilight retaliated with by levitating herself far off the ground to avoid the spikes. She blasted the ceiling and started raining chunks of rubble down upon Trixie. Trixie warped herself out of the way and spun to face Twilight, who gently lowered herself to the floor. The other five ponies watched in awe, not sure that they could even enter this battle. They instead looked over at Batman to see how he was doing.
Morgaine fired off black bolts of magic at the bat, which sliced through them with the anti-rangs gripped in his hands. Morgaine teleported herself away from a vicious roundhouse and started to concentrate. With her magical mastery, she summoned a massive dragon made of black magic and sent it screaming at Batman. Right before it devoured him; he launched the grapple gun to lift him over it and came back down on top of it. He went blades first, slicing the magic dragon clean in half. As the dragon sputtered and dies, Batman turned back to Morgaine.
"Sorry Batman, but the Stone of Reality is now mine!" Morgaine yelled triumphantly, holding the stone overhead. It was at that moment a blue blur whizzed by Morgaine's hand and snatched the stone right out of it.
"NO!" Morgaine yelled. Rainbow Dash let out a laugh as she tossed the stone to Batman, who snatched it out of the air.
"So Batman, how was that for cool?" Rainbow asked, smiling smugly.
"What did I tell you? Get away from Morgaine!" Batman yelled out, tossing two batarangs at Morgaine to distract her. But Morgaine was angry now. She raised her open hand at Rainbow Dash, who was pulled into Morgaine's grasp by a powerful magic. Rainbow struggled to escape, but Morgaine tightened her grip, nearly choking the blue pegasus out.
"Let her go, Morgaine. This is between you and me," Batman said calmly, try not to enrage the sorceress further Morgaine simply shook her head.
"She got involved when she laid her hooves on me. Now everyone STOP!" Morgaine yelled out, ceasing all the fighting in the room. An exhausted Trixie and a slightly tired Twilight continued to glare at each other, but they did stop fighting.
"Why?" Trixie asked. "Why can't I beat you?"
"That's because-"
"I SAID SILENCE!" Morgaine roared, tightening her grip on Rainbow's throat. Rainbow Dash was starting to see spots and she could barely breathe. Morgaine would have loved to kill RD right then and there, but she thought of an even better use for her..
"I'll tell you what Batman. I'll give you back you friend here IF you hand me that stone in your hand," Morgaine offered, pointing to Batman's fist. He held the stone up and Glared at Morgaine, while Rainbow tried to talk.
"No...Batman...don-" She was cut off by Morgaine clenching her hand tighter. "Do we have a deal?" Morgaine asked.
"How do I know you'll keep your word?" he asked her. Morgaine smiled. "You don't." Batman growled at her, but after looking at Rainbow Dash's desperate expression gave in and held out the stone.
"Hmmm...Actually I want your orange friend, the Element of Honesty, to give it to me. I trust her much more than I trust you.." Applejack looked at Batman, who nodded and tossed her the stone. AJ swallowed back her fear and approached the sorceress, who smiled and held out her hand. Applejack slowly placed the stone into her hand and backed up. Morgaine allowed a small smile to cross her face.
"Now then, while I would love for nothing more than to snap this annoying ponies neck...I'm in too good a mood for anything violent," Morgaine said with a smile, tossing Rainbow Dash at Batman. He caught her and glared up at Morgaine, who had teleported Trixie to her side.
"But of course, I can't let any of you live, so...die." Morgaine fired a bolt of magic into the already damaged ceiling, resulting in the place to begin to cave in. Morgaine let out her evil laugh as she teleported Trixie and herself away. The ponies immediately began to run for the exit. Twilight was assisted by rainbow Dash and AJ as she was too tired to move. The ponies and Batman raced through the corridor when Batman realized something. Fluttershy wasn't with them. As horror took hold of his heart, he turned and sprinted back into the collapsing chamber. He looked around frantically until he spotted her with her wing trapped under a chunk of rumble. With mere seconds before the chamber collapsed, Batman sprinted over and with his strength, tossed the rock off of Fluttershy. She flashed him a look of gratitude and the two ran towards the exit. Time slowed down once again as Batman looked up and saw a massive part of the ceiling headed for the exit. The moment that came down the two would be stuck in the chamber. He couldn't let that happen. He grabbed Fluttershy and with a windup spin, tossed her into the corridor.
"Batman!" she screamed and tried to rush back to him, but the giant piece of rubble chose to land right in front of her. She pushed against the rock with all her might, yet it refused to budge.
"Fluttershy, what's wrong? Where's Batman?" Twilight asked as she ran over to her friend.
"He's trapped in there! We have to get him out!"" Fluttershy half cried, still trying to push the boulder. The corridor's ceiling began to collapse on top of them and Twilight was forced to make a hard choice.
"Fluttershy, I'm sorry," Twilight muttered, before lifting Fluttershy up with her magic.
"Twilight, what are you doing? We have to save him!" Fluttershy yelled.
"We need to get out of here. There's nothing we can do," Twilight told her friend, turning towards the way out and sprinting for the exit. Fluttershy let out one last cry as the room continued to collapse. Twilight ran with whatever strength she had left, barely managing to get her and Fluttershy out of the way of falling debris. Twilight went into one last dead sprint as she saw the exit to the temple. Twilight, with Fluttershy in tow, just made it out as the entire temple collapsed.
"NO!" Fluttershy screamed, running over to the rubble. AJ and Pinkie ran to Twilight, who had collapsed from exhausting her power.
"Twi, are you okay? We saw the temple come down on ya," AJ asked her friend.
"Yeah, it just went BBBOOOOOMMMM!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"That's not important now! Batman was still in there!" Twilight exclaimed. The others gasped and immediately ran over to join Fluttershy, who, despite her small stature, was desperately lifting and throwing rocks, trying to find her friend. The other ponies joined in, tossing stones and debris out of their way. After about ten minutes of digging, they were getting worried.
"What if he...didn't make it?" Rarity asked in disbelief.
"He's survived everything else that has been thrown at him, he can survive this," Fluttershy said with determination, still trying to unearth Batman.
"We have to face the facts, sugar cube," AJ said gently, placing a hoof around Fluttershy's shoulder. "There's not much of a chance that he could've survived that. Even Batman couldn't-"
SMASH!
The ponies all jumped as a black fist punched through the rubble about ten feet from them. Fluttershy let out a cry of delight and ran over to the spot. After a moment of being stunned, the other ponies ran over and helped to unearth him. A minute of digging was enough to get most the rubble off of Batman, who pushed the rest off himself.
"How in tarnations did you survive that?" AJ asked in disbelief.
"This isn't the first time I’ve been buried alive and it probable won't be my last," he replied with a small smile. The ponies for the umpteenth time since he arrived looked at him in awe. He'd survived more punishment in a few months that most ponies went through in a life time and apparently he nearly got himself killed every night in his world as well. But now what all the ponies were wondering was how much more can he take?
"So, now what?" he asked Twilight. She let out a small sigh.
"We tell Celestia what happened."
=====------=====
Morgaine's castle.
"Argh, how did that fool manage to nearly beat me again!? has all my training been for nothing?!" Trixie ranted, still in disbelief that Twilight had come so close to beating her. Morgaine did her best to comfort her student.
"Now Trixie, considering how large the difference in your powers were before you met me, I'd say you have made remarkable progress," Morgaine soothed, but it didn't help.
"Progress is pointless if you still get beaten by the one you hate," Trixie retorted.
"True."
"There has to be a way to beat her," Trixie muttered, going over many different battle scenarios in her head. In addition to being trained in the mystical arts, Morgaine was also increasing Trixie's mental capacity. After a moment, she cried out again in frustration.
"It doesn't matter what the scenario is, I still lose every time!" Trixie snarled, using her magic to toss one of Morgaine's minions across the room.
"Maybe you need to try a different approach? Instead of fighting to your opponents strengths, try fighting to yours." Morgaine suggested. Trixie pondered what Morgaine had said, beginning to play different battle scenarios in her head. After a few minutes, she smiled to herself.
"Master, you are a genius. I'm off to train," Trixie yelled, running off towards the sparring hall. Morgaine smiled at her apprentice’s enthusiasm, before turning her attention to the Stone of Reality in her hand. She had found a hidden passage in Star-Swirls notes, indication the stone's power could only be used on certain days of the year. Further studies had shown that the stone had a safety feature that only allowed the stone to be opened in the presences of Celestia. Considering that the next time the portal could be opened was in three days, which would mean she had to take over Canterlot on the fourth day. Normally Morgaine would think of Batman as the one force that could stop her, but his destiny showed that he was no longer a threat. As Morgaine looked at the stone that would help all her dreams become, she smiled to herself.
'Becoming ruler of the world has never been so easy,' Morgaine thought to herself.
====-----====
Canterlot, Royal Hall.
"...And that's essentially what happened," Twilight told Celestia, hanging her head at her tale of failure. The other ponies hung their heads in shame as well, except Batman who was too busy ignoring the glare from Luna. Celestia looked grim, not liking what this would mean for the future of Canterlot. After a few minutes of thinking to herself, she finally spoke.
"First of all, I would like to thank you Batman for saving my student and her friends lives." Batman nodded in return. "Second; I have some disturbing news. My scholars and I have found that the Stone of Reality can only be opened during certain times of the year. And one of those times is in three days."
"So we only have a few days to find Morgaine and stop her?" Batman asked, not liking where the conversation was heading.
"Yes and no. We have also discovered that the stone has a safety mode that only allows it to be opened in my presences or my sister's. That means Morgaine will need to be close to us in order to open any portal she wants."
"Which means she'll be coming here in three days," Batman muttered to himself. Luna gave him a questioning glance.
"And how do you know this?"
"Because I know her. She'll try to take Canterlot on the day that the portal opens so that she only needs to hold the city for maybe an hour tops. She's not the kind to take any risks. She'll attack on the third day."
"What are you saying? That she'll attack a city full of guards, the Elements of Harmony and the two most powerful alicorns in the world? She must be stupid," Luna said with a smirk.
"And she'll take Canterlot if we don't prepare," Batman responded.
"What do you mean?"
"Remember the towns she attacked? Morgaine's not the kind to waste lives when she could easily turn them into her slaves," Batman reminded them. Celestia and the others dimly began to grasp what he was saying.
"You mean..."
"Yes, she'll use the ponies she captured from the towns to help her wage war on Canterlot. Let me ask you princess, how do you feel about fighting your own subjects?"
Celestia was deeply disturbed by that thought. Everypony else in the room was scared of what the future battle held.
"Won't she be afraid of you?" Celestia asked.
"Due to some...unavoidable circumstances, Morgaine has figured out a way to kill me. So to answer your question; no." The ponies gasped at that. Morgaine could kill Batman? That was not a good sign.
"So what do you recommend?" Celestia asked. Everypony in the room looked to him now, all of them realizing he was their only hope. After a minute of thinking, the bat had a plan.
"What we'll do is send all the citizens of Canterlot to Ponyville. Get them off of the future battlefield and out of harm’s way. The guards will stay, naturally."
"What if the ponies refuse to go to Ponyville?" Luna asked.
"If you and your sister can't get them to go, just tell them that the bat will...persuade them," he said with a menacing smile.
"Very well," Celestia answered after a while of thinking. "I will do as you have instructed. I would also recommend that you spend the next few days preparing for the battle and saying goodbye to any friends of yours...if you’ve made any," Celestia said with a sarcastic smile.
"I'll remember that little remark when I'm saving your life," Batman replied with his own grin. Celestia turned to Twilight and the others.
"Spend the next few days relaxing and having fun. It may be the last time you will be able to for a long time, she said grimly.
"Yes, your majesty," they all said with a bow. Celestia smiled and cast a teleportation spell on them, sending them back to Ponyville. When they were gone, she turned to her sister.
"Luna, I want you to tell the citizens of Canterlot what is going on. We must evacuate them as soon as possible."
"Yes, sister," Luna replied, flying out the window and into the city. Celestia watched her go, thinking quietly to herself.
'And now we must prepare for something that has not plagued Equestria for nearly a thousand years. We prepare for war.'