The sky of Equestria shined a bright baby blue. Thes wind danced and the puffy white clouds provided an almost picturesque skyline. But Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship of Equestria, was never much for the outside. She occupied herself in the library, mulling over her assortment of books and the array of subjects they covered.
From her library window burst Rainbow Dash, a light book reader but heavy speed lover, who had been zooming to-and-fro the blue sky until crashing in Twilight's castle. The blue pegasus dusted herself off, and giggled at the incident. "Twilight! It's a perfect day outside. Why don't you come hang out? Me and Pinkie have got this picnic set up, and Applejack is bringing food."
Twilight thought it over. She wanted to re-re-read her newest editions of Animal Morphing: History & Current Reality by Starswirl the Bearded. But she couldn't deny herself a get together with her friends. She decided to do both. "That sounds great! I'll grab my books."
Trotting to the grass green park in Ponyville, Twilight unpacked her books at the picnic spot. Applejack had indeed brought food, and what food! Apple pie, apple tarts, apple fritters, and plain apples all tempted Twilight.
"Well howdy, Twi!" Applejack greeted her alicorn friend after unpacking all her culinary delights. "I knew you'd show up, which is why I made sure to pack a little extra. Rainbow wasn't so sure, but we showed her, huh?"
"That we did." Twilight responded, grabbing an apple fritter from a plate. "Say, where's Pinkie Pie? Rainbow said she helped arrange it."
"She's over at Sugarcube Corner I reckon." From the distance came the sound of party cannons and joyful screaming. "Or maybe she's on her way."
And she was. Rocketing towards Twilight came Pinkie Pie, who began to erratically bounce off this surface and that like a pinball in an arcade machine until she finally suddenly stopped. "Twilight!" She howled. "I'm so glad you could make it to Pinkie Pie's Spontaneous Park Party!"
"Pinkie! Hi!" Twilight beamed as Pinkie Pie began to materialize a variety of sweets from seemingly nowhere. Cakes, cupcakes, brownies, cookies, lollipops, and candy canes added to the medley of apple treats. "Are Rarity and Fluttershy coming as well?"
"Of course we are, darling." A few ways from Applejack came Rarity, sporting a spring sundress and wide brim hat. Fluttershy followed behind her, small animals accompanying her as usual.
"Hi." Fluttershy said, quite quietly.
Diving from the air and landing on all fours, Rainbow Dash greeted all of her friends. "Hey, everybody's here!"
"Well ain't that somethin'." Commented Applejack. "We oughta get a picture for the occasion!"
Twilight summoned forth a camera pony to take a few pictures before the Mane Six dug into their picnic. Fun was had by all, and afterwards they agreed to all go back to the castle together. A picnic was just the beginning! "We can have a sleepover at my cottage. And a tea party in the morning." concluded Pinkie Pie.
The six of them went to the castle to prepare, but as they entered they felt something was off. Silence fell across the group of ponies. Listening closely, they could hear the humming of electric equipment and the mutterings of another pony in the basement. "Twilight, dear," Rarity began to shake, "I don't think we're alone."
Pinkie Pie produced a baseball bat and football helmet for protection.
The group started to quietly tiptoe to the source of the noise. As they got closer, they could more easily distinguish the noise. It sounded gruff, but still youthful. Twilight thought it was perhaps a stallion, which made the apparent break-in even more odd. The castle was specifically sealed with a magic lock to prevent ponies who were unauthorized from entering.
Now down the stairs and outside the door to the castle's basement, the source of the noises, the ponies readied to make their entrance. Applejack kicked down the door. Twilight readied her horn, prepping a beam of magic in case the intruder was dangerous. But the intruder wasn't. In fact he was just as shocked as the ponies were.
Before the Mane Six stood the intruder although, indeed, he was no stallion. Two feet taller than the rest of them, he sported gray armor, with a dark blue cape, cowl, gloves, and boots. His eyes, widened in shock, were a pearly white. Rarity was nearly bursting at the seams admiring the outfit, though she remained outwardly calm.
The Batman, after assessing the candy colored creatures, quickly rolled behind the smaller portal machine which spat him out. He produced a batarang from his utility belt. "Comms are still out." He thought to himself. He was going to have to rely purely on himself, which he was more than used to.
"We don't want to hurt you, intruder." Twilight reassured Batman. From her horn she summoned a beam of light to summon an otherwise dimly lit room. "Show yourself."
"Twi, what is that thing?" Applejack whispered to her friend.
"Yeah, why's it so… tall?" Rainbow Dash added.
"And what is it wearing?" Rarity beamed.
"Why's it dressed like a bat?" Fluttershy wondered, thinking back to when she was part bat.
"And why is it all dark colors?" Pinkie Pie, who surrounded herself with the rainbows, was not used to Batman's color palette.
Batman thought himself deluded, and began thinking to himself as he scanned the environment around him. "Could be the work of hallucinogens, possibly a modified strain of Crane's fear toxin, though nothing here reads abnormal. And I wasn't exposed to anything…"
"We're not here to fight. We promise." Reassured Twilight.
Batman thought all of this over. "Definitely not Crane's toxin. Everything's too vivid. Which means these ponies are real. Hopefully they aren't lying." Having caught a glance of them, he noticed some had wings, and others had horns. One of them even had both. Given the chance, the six of them could've taken advantage of his fish-out-of-water position and attacked him. But they didn't.
Slowly revealing himself from cover, Batman introduced himself to the ponies. "My name is Batman. I'm from a world far away from your own, and I've been sent here by accident."