"What would give you that idea?" she asked, trying not to seem shaken by his stare. Sure, his smirk made him look playful, but his eyes were cold and analyzing.
"Let's look at your traits, shall we?" he smirked even bigger. "A powerful mare with a strong devotion to harmony. Busy workaholic that disappears for days at a time. Most powerful unicorn since Starswirl the Bearded. Friends with billionaire princesses who share devotion to harmony and capable of amassing more tools than ever. Smart pony. Has a friend, a master flyer. And master theater mare. And a superstrong earth mare. Arrive in Gotham. Attacked, but somehow saved. Ultra powerful friends... And you're telling me that not one of you is the Bat-pony, or that a combination of you aren't?"
"W-well, umm..." Twilight couldn't think of a response.
"So you ARE the Bat-pony!" he proclaimed.
"No! But I can't prove... Hey, what's behind this wall?"
"A secret," he said, blushing.
"What, your Bat-pony costume?"
"N-no. A shrine." Twilight's eyes widened.
"To whom?"
"To you..." Twilight was dumbfounded. Could this be an act?
"W-What?"
"You heard me..."
"Look, I..." she was interrupted with a ringing, much like that of an alarm clock. Mayne went up to the source, a small device with a plastic ear/mouth piece attached to a box with a wire. The box read "WAYNE PHONE"
"Yes." Mayne answered, putting the "phone" to his face. Mayne's voice was much deeper than his normally nasally voice. "Yes... How many? I'll be there" He put the phone down and walked out of the room in some pace. Twilight followed.
"Weren't you just---"
"I'm busy. Go to bed."
"What are you doing?"
"A secret. Go to bed."
"No. You were telling me about a shrine and then---"
"I'm busy. Go to bed." He was walking through a corridor that was dimly lit.
"Where are you going?!" she asked as they went into a medical bay.
"Get several beds ready. We are about to get visitors." Mayne said to Alfred. Mayne turned to Twilight. "Ponies have been poisoned. They're coming here. Tell the others." He stormed off.
Twilight turned to Alfred. He looked very serious. "Tell them!" She galloped off to her room. She had often visited the castle, so navigating this was a peace of cake.
"Everypony get up!" she shouted down the guest corridor.
"Wha?" Rainbow muttered, half awake.
"Ponies have been poisoned! They have to be treated here!"
"Calm down. What's going on, exactly." Luna asked in a calm voice.
"I don't know. Mayne hasn't told me anything. He just told me to take you to the medical wing!"
***
A group of police officers brought in at least twenty ponies. They were writhing in fear, screaming about whatever they were hallucinating. It was all the police ponies could do to tie these ponies to the beds.
Fluttershy tried her hardest to calm them down, but she was apparently terrifying. "STAY AWAY!" proclaimed one patient. When she took a step closer, the patient took to trying to strangle herself. The ponies had to use magic to restrain them, and the glow caused even more screaming.
Everypony except Luna was crying at the immense fear ponies had been feeling, and she had come close to breaking. Being the strongest magic user, she attempted to cure the ailment with magic. When she tried, a pony had a heart-attack in sheer terror. This was the breaking point for almost everypony in the room.
After two hours of screaming and a few more heart-attacks, Bruce Mayne burst through the door, looking like he had just fought off a pack of timber-wolves. He was carrying a few vials of a liquid. He loaded it into a syringe and injected it into a pony's foreleg. The pony screamed a bit more, then stopped thrashing. His breathing stabilized, and he fell asleep. Soon, all the drugged ponies shared the fate.
"Where did you get the cure?" Luna asked, a small catch in her throat.
"I found it." he said, panting. "Are you all okay?" He looked to every ponies.
The doctors nodded, used to this kind of thing in Gotham. The police were playing checkers throughout the screaming, and just looked up to nod before going back to their game. The Mane Seven were certainly not "okay".
Luna, on the outside, was okay. She looked composed and as calm as possible in this situation. On the inside, though, she felt like Nightmare again. She had killed. Accidentally, of course, but still. The doctors had warned her, but she thought her skills were so above the doctors' that she wouldn't hurt the patient.
Twilight was helpless. Her one asset, magic, just terrified ponies.
Rarity had never felt so useless. She was never a fighter, but now she could do nothing.
Applejack was desperately trying to convince herself that this city could be fixed. As the Element of Honesty, though, she couldn't bring herself to lie to herself.
Rainbow was trying to ignore the screams. Trying her hardest. Even after they ended, she could still hear it. And she would for several nights thereafter.
Pinkie, like Luna, was feeling like a murderer. She had opted to "laugh the ghosties away". This resulted in five heart-attacks.
And Fluttershy... she was silently dying inside ever since she watched one pony try chew his own leg off...