Epilogue
"So you're absolutely sure there won't be any side effects to the city from all that magic being released?" asked Batman.
The crime fighter and the Rainbooms were perched on a rooftop in the middle of Gotham City. It had been a day since the battle beneath Arkham Asylum, and everyone had rested up. Once night had fallen once more, Batman contacted the Rainbooms, requesting they meet him one more time before heading out of town. The others had to convince Rainbow not to bring anything for him to sign.
"Oh, yes, one-hundred percent," replied Twilight. "We've cleared up tons of magic spills, as I like to call them, in Canterlot, and nothing's ever happened to the town. The magic simply disappates into the atmosphere, too thin to have any lasting effects. Though we should probably do something about the magic leaking into our world in the first place. We could've avoided all this trouble."
"Are you crazy?!" demanded Rainbow. "This team up was one of the greatest experiences of my life! There's no way I would ever turn this down. Or turn down a chance to do it again." She looked at Batman. "Can we, by the way? Can we, please?!"
Batman chuckled, something nobody expected to see in their lifetimes. "We'll see," he replied. "If you find yourself in Gotham for another case, be sure to contact me. We seem to make a good team."
"We will," said Sunset, as Applejack quietly pulled Rainbow away from Batman. "It probably won't happen, at least for a while. but if we need you, we'll call. And feel free to get in touch if you think there's more Equestrian magic in town." She rubbed her knuckles, which were still sore from punching. "Honestly, I don't think Gotham's really our scene. We can take down some supervillains, but I'd rather this not become a regular thing."
"I couldn't agree more," added Rarity. "While I enjoy the thrill of adventure as much as anyone, these late nights are not good for my designer career!"
Applejack rolled her eyes. "Ignore Miss Drama Queen," she told Batman. "Sure, we've all got lives outside of this, but we manage to balance things pretty well."
"Do your families all know about your chaotic duel lives?" asked Batman, curiously.
"Oh, yeah, definitely!" replied Pinkie. "Couldn't keep it a secret if we tried! Of course, we didn't tell them we were coming here, because even though we all turned eighteen, they never would've allowed it, but other than that, they know!"
"Must be nice to have a real work/life balance. To me, this job is everything."
"I get that," said Sunset. "By the way, did you feel anything when you got hit by the rainbow laser? I didn't think it would hurt you, since you aren't evil or anything, but we've never had it do that before."
Batman was quiet for a few moments. "There was no pain," he finally responded. "It was...calming, for lack of a better word. I felt like...the world wasn't so dark anymore, if only for a few seconds. It was something I've felt once since I was a child, but I didn't expect to feel again."
Sunset tilted her head. "When was the last time you had those feelings?"
Batman cast his gaze into the distance, looking at the moon shining down over Gotham. In his mind, he saw a tombstone with two names, in the middle of a thunderstorm. "I'd...rather not discuss that, if you don't mind."
"Okay," replied Sunset. She knew better than to push the issue. "I'm glad it made you feel a little better. Nobody deserves to stay in the darkness forever."
Batman turned back to face her. The ghost of a smile danced across his face. "Maybe, but this is the life I've chosen, and I'm at peace with that."
"How?" asked Sunset. She shivered, remembering the things she'd seen inside the Joker's mind. "I mean, we barely got a taste of what you go through every day, and it was a nightmare. How do you endure it?"
"Because I have to." There was an air of finality to those words. Sunset could tell she wouldn't get more out of him than that.
"It's a shame I can't throw you one of my super special Pinkie Pie parties!" said Pinkie, jolting Batman and Sunset out of their conversation. "But we'd kinda need to know who you are for that, and I'm guessing that's off the table."
"Although, if you were willing—" Rainbow began.
Rarity slapped her friend on the arm. "Rainbow Dash!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe you would be so ungrateful to him!"
"Okay, okay! I was just kidding!"
"It's probably for the best that you don't know," Batman continued. "If anybody knew that you were in on my secret identity, you'd never be fully safe again."
"Good point," agreed Twilight. "I mean, you have to have deduced that we can keep a secret, but we understand you're trying to protect us. Nothing wrong with that."
"Well, even if we never learn who you are," said Sunset, "last night may have been a pain, but I also kind of enjoyed working with you. I think it made us all tougher. Thanks for that."
Batman gave them one more smile. "You're welcome," he replied. "Take care of yourselves. It may not be Gotham, but it's a harsh world out there."
With those final words, he took out his grappling gun, pointed it at a nearby building, and fired. The claw-tipped line sank into the concrete easily, and the Dark Knight leaped off the building, swinging into the night. Soon, his shape was little more than a small form on the horizon, blotting out the moon.
"Oh my God, he's so cool..." breathed Rainbow. "Not as cool as me, of course, but he's friggin' awesome!"
Fluttershy laughed, before setting a hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "Come on, Dashie. We'd better start driving if we want to make it back to Canterlot before all our families get suspicious. Even if we are all eighteen, they'd find some way to ground us for this."
"Speak for yourselves," said Sunset. All the Rainbooms shared a healthy laugh at that.
Soon enough, they'd settled back onto the ground through a combination of Twilight and Rarity's powers. The tour bus, thankfully, hadn't been vandalized while they were gone, although perhaps all the criminals who saw it thought somebody beat them to it. The seven best friends all piled into the bus, with Applejack in the driver's seat once again.
"Who's ready for our road trip to come to an end?" asked the farmer, waving her hat in the air.
"Me!" chimed in Fluttershy. "It's been a long two days, and right now, I just wanna go home and rest up before we start college."
"I'm still shocked that all of us decided to stay in Canterlot, at least to start," added Sunset. "I thought for sure we'd be at least a little spread out across the country. Not that we couldn't have worked through that, of course. We'll always be friends. It's just unexpected."
"True," said Twilight. "I calculated the chances of us all going to the same college to be less than one percent. Still, like you said, it'll probably be brief. Some of us will end up transferring, some of us will probably decide to go to trade school, who knows?"
"Hey, look on the bright side!" said Rainbow. "This way, we can keep playing music together for a little longer! And we can keep raking in cash for our tuition through our website that Twilight whipped up!"
"Speaking of which, how's that going?" asked Pinkie. "We haven't checked it since we left for Gotham City."
Twilight, way ahead of her, began typing on her laptop. "Let's see," she announced. "We had a couple more people buy our latest single, a couple more recurring donations, and...whoa."
"'Whoa' what, darling?" asked Rarity. "Is that a good 'whoa,' or a bad 'whoa?'"
"Somebody made a pretty big donation last night. It's only a one-time thing, but...man, that's quite a few zeroes."
"Who was it?" asked Fluttershy. "Did they leave a name?"
"Yes. Bruce Wayne." Twilight blinked a couple of times. "Why do I know that name?"
"Maybe because of that?" said Rainbow, pointing out the window. The others (minus Applejack, who kept her eyes on the road) turned, discovering the massive skyscraper labeled "Wayne Tower" standing in the center of Gotham.
"Oh, the famous billionaire!" exclaimed Rarity, fanning herself with one hand. "But why would he donate to a bunch of barely adult pop musicians?"
"That's a good question," said Twilight. "He didn't leave a message or anything. Still, that amount's nothing to sneeze at!" She flipped her computer around, showing the others the screen. Everyone's eyebrows shot up.
"How much is it?" asked Applejack.
"Let's just say it's a lot," said Fluttershy. "Plus, he bought all our songs! Do you think maybe he heard about us while we were in Gotham?"
"Seems unlikely," replied Rainbow. "It's not like we went out in public or anything."
"Maybe he just likes our music?" said Pinkie.
While the girls continued to debate, a thought occurred to Sunset. She pulled out her phone, searching for images of Bruce Wayne. She pulled up a picture of him in a brown suit and studied his face carefully. She paid special attention to the lower half of his face, and his jaw.
Could it be...? she thought, then shook her head. Nah. That's impossible.
And so ends another story. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to reading all your comments.
Also, I probably should've put this in Chapter One, but better late than never.
Rest in peace, Kevin Conroy. You will always be the greatest Batman to me.
