Earth 2010

The Crystal Empire

Twilight's heart stopped.

As soon as the words left Batman's mouth her heart, and she was pretty sure that everyone else's, had stopped beating. It was because the thought had never came across her mind, it was an inconceivable idea that she never even gave it the merit of thought.

But that all changed when those words left her best friend's mouth.

"W-What...?" Twilight asked shakily, her eyes showing nothing but complete and utter betrayal. "What did you just say...?"

"The plans that were used against us." Batman repeated, making sure that everyone was listening. "They were mine. I created them."

The reaction was almost instantaneous.

"WHAT?!"

"Yours?!"

"You're kidding!"

"That simply can't be tha truth!"

"What do you mean they're yours?!"

"B-But I thought..."

Those were just some of the cries of outrage that came from the ponies and Guardians present, disbelief shrouding the chamber like a cloud of smog. They just couldn't believe it, Batman was their friend and ally, there was no way that he would secretly plan their downfall behind their backs.

He had to be lying.

Twilight prayed that he was lying.

She couldn't go through this again, not again. Not another betrayal by one she trusted.

She couldn't go through this with him.

Especially him. Her best friend, the one she confided in when she was betrayed the first time. Surely he would know not to keep something like this from her.

But the look in his eyes.

Stern, cold, calculating.

No hint of deceit whatsoever.

That's when it truly sunk in.

Bruce Wayne had betrayed her, created a means of taking her out without telling her. This was really happening again, another she had considered family had broken the bond they had built. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates, speaking volumes, wanting an answer to one, simple question.

Why?

Recovering from her stupor, Princess Luna looked to the Guardian of Gotham and said, "Darkest of Knights, please tell us this isn't true." Her eyes pleaded for the Dark Knight to say that this was all in a cruel jest.

But it wasn't.

He looked to her and said, "I can't do that. Because it is true."

The quiet of the chamber was once again drowned out by various cries and pleas of outrage.

"I've carefully studied every Guardian of the Multiverse, and created contingency plans to neutralize you, should that become necessary." Batman explained with a stern and calculative voice, silencing everyone in the room.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Mario exclaimed.

"Neutralize." Batman emphasized, making it clear that they were not meant to be lethal. "Not kill. Whoever implemented my plans altered them."

"It's still a completely unacceptable breach of our trust!" Mario yelled back at the Dark Knight, fists shaking at his sides as he barely contained the rage he felt at this betrayal.

"The Guardians of the Multiverse are among the most powerful and potentially dangerous people in the entire Multiverse." Batman explained without raising his voice, maintaining that sense of calm and collectiveness as he gave his reasons for what he did.

Sonic, completely appalled, put his hand on his forehead. "This is unbelievable..."

"You think one of us would go over to the other side?" Tony asked, surprisingly calm about all this. He received some odd looks from the others present, but he ignored them. He seemed to be giving Batman a chance to explain himself, possibly giving him the benefit of the doubt, yet nobody knew why.

Looking to Tony, Batman nodded and said, "Or succumb to mind control. Yes, it's possible. That's why I developed plans for containing any or all members of the Guardians should the need ever arise."

"Why...?"

All heads turned to Twilight Sparkle, who's eyes were covered by her mane as she held her head down low. Spike and Starlight moved to approach her to offer her some comfort, but stopped dead in their tracks, their eyes wide and fearful, when her wings suddenly sprouted outwards and she raised her head.

She was crying.

Tears of anger and betrayal streamed down her eyes as her horn crackled with magic.

"WHY?! WHY, WHY, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!" She cried out, her voice echoing throughout the chamber, everyone besides Batman taking a cautionary step back. "NONE OF US WOULD EVER DO THAT TO YOU! I WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO YOU!!!"

Batman scowled at the mare and remained as calm as possible, he knew that if he raised his voice then the situation would go out of control. He couldn't lie to her, he knew that the plans were necessary, and that someone as smart as Twilight hadn't thought of something like that was baffling to him. So, he just looked at her and said, "Then you're damned fools."

Everypony stared at the Batman as if he were a different person. There was no way he had just said that to her, sure they knew he was blunt, but surely he could've at least said he was sorry to try and calm the Princess of Friendship.

But he didn't.

Because he felt like he had nothing to apologize for.

Twilight simply stared at her best friend, a look of disbelief on her broken face, her mouth agape as tears continued to fall. She honestly couldn't believe that he had just said that. Twilight had nothing to say, how could she? So, she just furled her wings and stood there, expressionless.

You could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

So, deciding to cut the tension himself, Iron Man said, "I'm not sure I have a problem with Batman's contingency plans." He knew that he would receive looks from everyone. And he did. Everyone turned to him as if he were a crazy man. He held up his hands in defense and explained, "I have a whole armory full of Buster Armors made for various members of the Avengers. So I see where he's coming from." He looked to Batman and said, "But letting somebody steal them was pretty damn dumb."

"I've had some time to think about that and I know how it happened." Batman said as he opened his palm and held it outward. Then a holographic projection appeared and played in his hand. Enhancing the screen, making it bigger for all to see, Batman explained as it played, "Security video from the Batcave."

The footage showed that everything was normal in the cave, the bats were flapping about, Ace the Bat Hound was sleeping in his bed, and Alfred was walking towards the Batcomputer with a plate of food in his hands. As the footage almost came to an end, it stopped and zoomed in on a flicker of red just at the bottom of the camera.

It was small, but noticeable.

A spark of red lightning.

"What exactly are we looking at here?" Shining asked bitterly, scowling at the Hero of Gotham for putting his sister in harms way.

"The speedster that orchestrated this entire attack, he was in the Batcave and somehow managed to gain access to my files." Explained the Dark Knight. "He must've used Flashtime to bypass my security measures. The only reason I was able to pick up that small flicker of lightning must've been because he was using too much of the Speedforce, therefore returning him to normal speed."

"B-But that doesn't explain what he wants." Sunburst couldn't help but point out, adjusting his glasses.

"They all said it." Mario looked around at their confused faces before clarifying. "They want to change reality, make their own perfect world."

"But how the hay are they gonna do that?" AJ asked.

Princess Cadance looked around for a moment, her baby cooing in her legs, and said, "Maybe we should discuss this inside the palace?" Truth be told, she didn't want to cause anymore of a panic than was necessary, they had had enough trouble for one day.

"Princess Cadance is correct," Celestia agreed, "Let us take this discussion into the Crystal Palace."

The three alicorns led the ensemble of ponies, Mobians, and humans into the castle, with Starlight Glimmer lagging behind, trying to remain as small as possible. She saw the dirty looks some of the ponies gave Batman, specifically Rainbow Dash, Shining Armor, and Applejack, and shuddered, unable to help but think of the way Sunburst had looked at her when she told him what she did.

She stopped, as did everyone else, when she noticed that neither Batman nor Twilight had moved, both locked in a harsh stare, waiting for the other to move first. "Twilight?" Starlight called out hesitantly, knowing how angry the alicorn currently was at the moment.

"Leave us alone for a moment."

At the request, everyone made their way into the castle, leaving the two best friends to their privacy.

"Well?" Twilight started once the coast was clear, expecting Bruce to say something, possibly an apology. She would be willing to forgive and forget if the stubborn man would admit to his mistake and say his sorry.

But she knew him better than that.

"Well, what?" Batman retorted expectedly.

"Aren't you going to apologize?" She asked through gritted teeth, doing a terrible job of hiding her anger.

The Justice Leaguer crossed his arms, his stance defiant. "I have nothing to apologize for." He defended sternly. "I'm sorry that you and the others got hurt because of my negligence regarding the Babel Protocols, but I will not apologize for implementing them in the first place. They're needed."

Twilight couldn't help but laugh bitterly, "You're so stubborn and clueless." When he arched an eyebrow, she elaborated, "Bruce, I'm not mad about the plans, I think that it's good that you're ahead of the ball and thinking ahead. But what I won't stand for is the fact that you completely disregarded us, went behind our backs, and didn't tell us about them in the first place."

"That would defeat the whole purpose." Batman defended, furrowing his brows. "If you knew that they were there, then what would be the point of them?"

"You still should have told us."

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"The fact that you can't see what's right in your face is astounding! After everything we've been through, after all the struggles and hardships, after sharing with me your greatest secret, you still don't trust me!"

"This isn't about trust, it's about security."

"Bruce, you concocted plans to neutralize us in case we went bad behind our backs! You lied to me, even after seeing what happened between me and the girls, how that affected me, you still went behind my back and did it anyway!"

"You're being ridiculous."

"My feelings are not ridiculous, Bruce! After so long, after finally learning to trust my friends again, the one person who I expect to be in my corner no matter what, my best friend, goes behind my back and plans my downfall and doesn't even feel like he has to say sorry! You hid things from me! You lied to me!"

Finally losing his patience, Batman snapped, "You want to talk about hiding things? What about you? I'm not going to stand here and be lectured by the mare who thought it was a good idea to hide how she felt about her friends before it blew up right in her face at the worst possible time."

"SCREW YOU!!!" Her voice echoed throughout the empire, her wings flared and her horn sparkling with magic, her entire form shaking with anger and hurt. She was panting heavily, her eyes narrowed at the Dark Knight. She was beyond hurt, she was distraught and angry, and who could blame her? It was very rare for Twilight to lose her composure, let alone speak in such a way to her friends, so in this instance, she made an exception.

Batman simply stood there and looked unimpressed at the alicorn. "You're impossible to talk to like this." Having said his piece, he turned around and began walking into the castle. "When you're done acting like this and start acting like a princess, we can continue this conversation."

Part of her wanted to blast the arrogant human right then and there, to shout and scream at him, to say that she would never forgive him for this. But she couldn't, because she knew that wasn't true. After this, after going behind her back and creating plans to take her down, she still loved him. He was her best friend, and to quote herself, 'Friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt that it's worth fighting for.'

While she was beyond angry at him, she couldn't bring herself to hate him.

She could never hate him.

Twilight furled her wings and took a deep breath, she had to calm herself, they had a situation at hoof. This conversation wasn't over, it was just on hold for the moment.

They had much more important things to focus on at the moment.

With that thought in mind, Twilight made her way inside the castle.

The Crystal Palace Throne Room

All eyes were set on the Batman as he made his way into the throne room, clearly annoyed, it appears that his and Twilight's conversation didn't go well. He ignored all the dirty looks he got from everyone in the room as he shrouded himself in his cape.

When the doors opened once again and Twilight Sparkle stepped in, only then did the Batman turn and acknowledge her. She looked at him with hurt eyes before turning away and clearing her throat, "Where are we with Tirek and the others?"

"Y'know, despite everything that's happened, I can't be the only one who thinks that it's getting annoying we don't have a name for their team yet." Sonic said.

"Why would we name them?" Luna asked, genuinely confused as to why the hedgehog was making this a topic of discussion.

"Well, I mean it's gonna get annoying just calling them Eggman and the others or whatever, so why not make it easier?" The hedgehog tapped his chin in thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. "I got it! How about--"

"The Legion of Doom!" Pinkie piped up suddenly, popping out of nowhere behind Sonic.

The hedgehog was about to reprimand her, but stopped for a moment before conceding, "That's better than what I had in mind. So you get a pass."

"Where did you hear that name?" Batman asked, suspicious as to how the party pony knew the name of Lex Luthor's anti Justice League.

"Oh! I just used the name that will probably come up in the future. Although part of me wonders how Hasbro didn't get sued for using it, but then again, the fandom kind of named them and it kinda stuck so I guess it's okay?" Pinkie didn't sound too sure.

Then again nobody knew what she was talking about, so they just ignored her.

"Regardless, this... Legion of Doom," Pinkie beamed at Celestia before being promptly pushed back by her magic, "We still need a means of figuring out what their end goal is."

"We know that though." Mario pointed out. "They want to change the world."

"But how?" Cadance asked, looking at Shining Armor worriedly. "How could they even accomplish such a task?"

"I believe that I can answer that."

All of a sudden, a tornado of sparkles appeared in front of the doors leading into the throne room, causing everyone to quickly stand on alert. But their alarm was misplaced as this wasn't the work of an adversary. It was the work of an old ally and friend.

The swirl of sparkles dispersed and in its place was a spectral projection of a bearded unicorn. He wore a blue cloak with yellow stars stitched onto it with bells on the edges of it. He also wore a blue pointy magicians hat with bells also stitched onto it, with one large bell stitched to the tip of the hat.

Upon the appearance of Starswirl the bearded, or rather, the astral projection of his magic, Sunburst then proceeded to fall over and faint. The elderly unicorn mage chuckled at the astonished faces in the room. "My friends, while it is marvelous to see you all again, I am afraid that I come bearing bad tidings."

Recovering from her initial shock, Twilight stuttered, "S-Starswirl? N-Not that I'm unhappy to see you again, but what are you doing here?" The last time she saw him was back on Vorton where he revealed their destinies as the new Guardians of the Multiverse, explaining the threat of The Exiled and the severe gravity of the situation. "And what bad tidings are you talking about?"

"Do you know something that we don't?" Shining asked, still stunned at the appearance of the legendary wizard.

"You would be correct in your assumption, Prince Armor." Starswirl confirmed with a nod. "This Legion of Doom that you speak of is after a relic, an ancient relic that could spell disaster for reality as we know it. As it stands, you are the only ones standing in the way of unspeakable evil."

The air chilled in the throne room, the gravity of the situation finally settling in. Cadance held her baby protectively, the alicorn nuzzling up to her mother as Shining planted a kiss on her forehead. The Princess of Love looked around to see uneasy looks on each ponies face, while they saw stern frown on that of the Guardians.

"What relic do you speak of?" Luna dreaded to ask.

"The Spear of Destiny."

"What's that?" Rainbow asked.

"An ancient weapon created by Supreme himself, forged through his own power with the ability to change reality itself." After that fact settled in, he continued, "After realizing the damage the spear could do in the wrong hands, Supreme split it apart into four pieces so that it could never fall into the wrong hands. This Legion of Doom wishes to locate and reforge the Spear of Destiny to change reality as you know it. If they succeed there will be nothing that can stop them."

"Where do we find this thing?" Sonic couldn't help but ask.

The astral projection shook his head, "Unfortunately the locations of the pieces are unknown to me. But there is a means of locating them; the Longinus Medallion. It is in tune with the pieces of the spear and it will lead you to them. If you wish to find them, then you must locate the medallion."

The Guardians looked to one another before Twilight approached the astral projection, "Whatever the task, if the Multiverse is in danger then we will always stand up to protect it." She looked back, receiving nods of approval from the others. She gave a sad look to Batman, who simply looked at her with a blank expression. With a heavy sigh, she steeled her look and turned back to the projection. "How do we find this medallion?"

"Whenever the medallion is in the same dimension as a piece of the spear, it emits a pulse to alert the other pieces that someone is looking to reunite them, reawakening them from their dormant state. This pulse should be large enough for you to pick it up back at the Eternal Apex." The unicorn mage began to fade away, turning into nothing but sparkles of light. "My time here is up, but allow me to leave you with one piece of advice, Princess Twilight. Despite the severity of this betrayal, you must have complete trust in your friend. Otherwise all will be lost."

With that foreboding warning, Starswirl the Bearded faded away.

Starlight had since left the throne room with a heavy heart and a sense of foreboding weighing heavily upon her. With everything at stake who could blame her, just this morning she was spiraling over meeting Sunburst again, that all seemed miniscule compared to what's at stake now.

A spear capable of rewriting reality itself.

It was unheard of.

The unicorn couldn't help but wonder what her life would be like if she got her hooves on that spear, but shook those thoughts away. She wasn't that mare anymore. She was better, a student to the Princess of Friendship.

But Sunburst didn't see it that way, she could feel the disgust radiating off of him when she told him the truth.

She wasn't worthy of his friendship.

And to pile onto that, Batman's revelation of his contingency plans made matters worse. She felt selfish, Twilight was feeling the sting of betrayal and here she was feeling sorry for herself.

After all this time, Starlight Glimmer was still a selfish pony.

She hated that about herself, she hated herself, she just wanted things to go back to how they were! She never wanted--

"Starlight?"

Her spiraling thoughts were ceased as she turned around to see the concerned gaze of Twilight Sparkle, who had her head tilted to the side.

"Are you alright?" She took a small step forward towards her student. "Is everything alright?"

Glimmer couldn't help but laugh. "I should be the one asking you that." Now turned completely to Twilight, she asked, "How are you feeling? What with everything...." She trailed off, not knowing how to best approach that particular topic.

She felt a heavy weight in her stomach when she saw her teacher look down in utter sadness, her tears glistening in the crystal hallway. "It's... It's a lot, y'know? It's not everyday you find out that your best friend is secretly plotting to take you down behind your back." She turned her head to gaze at the doors leading to the throne room solemnly. "And now with this situation with the Legion of Doom, it's quite a lot to process."

"At least Pinkie's name is catching on." Starlight attempted to lighten up the mood.

This got her desired reaction as Twilight giggled softly, covering her mouth with her hoof. "It sure is. Pinkie's creative, that's for sure." She looked away from the doors and gave her student a concerned look, "Why did you leave so suddenly? Did something happen?"

Ah, there it was. The one topic Starlight did not want to talk about. Gently cuffing the floor with her hoof, eyes averted away from Twilight, she sighed and said, "Sunburst wants nothing to do with me." At Twilight's shocked expression, she continued, "I tried, I really did! I wanted to reignite the spark of friendship between us, but when I told him.... about everything that happened..." She didn't need to look up to see that Twilight had an understanding look on her face. "I could just tell that he was completely disgusted with me, he looked at me like I was a monster! And who could blame him? I am a monster."

"Oh, Starlight... that's not true."

"Isn't it?"

"No. And I'm sure Sunburst doesn't think that either."

"Well it doesn't matter now." Starlight held back a sob, looking away from her teacher. "I completely blew my first Friendship Lesson and I won't even have the chance to make things right." Wiping her nose with the back of her leg, she slowly closed her eyes and lowered her head. "You're leaving now to go on some grand adventure across different universes while I'm stuck here with constant reminders of my mistakes. I just wish there was a way that I could prove that I have changed, that I can prove that I'm not that same pony I was before."

Wait... That's it!

If this would work as Twilight thought it would, then not only would Starlight get her chance at the redemption she craves, but she would also see that it is possible to reignite the spark of friendship between two friends that has since dimmed. Starlight would observe as she and Batman got past this roadblock in their friendship and see that she could do the same with Sunburst!

But could she do that and stop the Legion of Doom at the same time?

Hey, she stopped the Exiled and Dr. Eggman in the same day with the help of her friends.

Compared to that, this would be a piece of cake.

Twilight looked at her student with a knowing smile on her face. "Starlight?" The student turned to the teacher, confused as to why said teacher was smiling. That look of confusion was replaced with one of shock when Twilight asked, "How would you like to go on the adventure of a lifetime?"

Author's Note

Not gonna lie, writers block hit me hard when it came to this one.

Like, I knew where I wanted to go when it came to the story of this chapter, but the words wouldn't form, y'know?

Plus, I've been so busy with work and going places, I just haven't had the time to work on this. I deeply apologize for making you all wait, you're all awesome.

But hold onto your hats, cause next chapter we head to first world in this story.

Stay Tuned~