Well, Luna’s fucked.

Such vulgarity! Do try to have some semblance of sophistication.

Me? Unsophisticated? You just killed a guy less than five minutes ago!

Yes, but with class!

Wearing a tux and using fancy silverware does not count as class!

Well then, I do believe I’ll take my murdering spree somewhere else, thank you very much. The nerve of some people.

And for Christ’s sake, please try to not get bloodstains on the tux. It cost me a lot of money to rent it for you, and it’s dry clean only!

Why aren’t you a little complainer.

You’re not the one who has to pay rent again this month! You’d think a roommate would be more considerate in helping pay for the rent.

Hey, I am considerate! I killed the landlord, didn’t I?

… Say what now?

He’s in the washing machine.

Okay, first off, why? And secondly, why in the washing machine?

The spin cycle didn’t work. He couldn’t fix it. Good news, now we have free detergent!

And a washing machine filled with a dead body!

Hey, I’m just trying to look on the bright side of things. You didn’t even hear what I did to the drying machine.

This is going to cost me a lot of quarters, isn’t it?

By the time I’m done destroying this soda machine, we won’t have to worry about running out of quarters ever again!

“Wh-where am I?” Luna asked, blinking her eyes as she felt the fuzziness she experienced before leaving her vision. She felt as if her mouth was full of cotton balls and her brain was barely able to function coherently.

“Why, still sleeping like a princess,” a shadowed figure said before her, before stepping into the light from overhead to reveal the lanky figure of the Joker, still smiling like a madman.

Then it all came rushing back to her. Entering the Joker’s dreams, becoming trapped in his twisted mind, going through each one of his merciless crimes one by one. All as the victims, of course. She must’ve blacked out. But how was that even possible in a dream?

“What’s happening now?” Luna asked her captor, too weak to move. Her mind was so jaded from the repeated murders that she could hardly think straight.

The Joker just grinned an extra malicious smile. “Don’t you remember what happened before you blacked out?”

“Yeah… you skinned me alive,” Luna answered, wincing at the memory. “Then threw me onstage for a crowd to laugh at me. It… it… hurt so horribly...”

“Give the girl a treat, because she got it right!” the Joker congratulated her, reaching into his coat pocket and rummaging through it for a moment. “Do you know what’s going to happen now?”

“Please… please, just end it,” Luna begged. She had already gone through enough pain, enough nightmares, to last most ponies their entire lifetime. Too bad for Luna, she still had several lifetimes to go.

“Oh, I will soon enough.” The Joker finally found what he was looking for. A large handgun that looked like it was better suited as a two-hand assault weapon. Pointing the wide end muzzle directly in her face, he asked, “So, Luny, feel a tingling on your face?”

“It… IT BURNS!” Luna cried out, half of her face feeling like it was on fire. It felt like the meat of her cheek and even her bone had melted off, leaving a large bloody wound in its place.

“Yeah, a combination of electricity and acid can do that to ya,” he laughed, trigger finger eager to click away. “But don’t worry. I have about 10 millimeters of medicine to take care of that for you!”

BLAM!

“Bahahahahahahahaha!” the Joker laughed hysterically, slapping his knee in glee over the dead body of Luna. “That was even more fun than killing Luthor! Well, his alternate form, anyways.”

Luna moaned, reforming in her own bloody pool as her face healed back up. She wouldn’t die, of course. Not until the Joker was done with his fun, that is.

“Please, just end this torture! End it in mercy’s name!”

“Sorry, but mercy’s name is nadda, and she can be quite a bitch sometimes,” the Joker chuckled, throwing his gun to the side to lean down beside her. “But why the long face, horse creature? Didn’t you want to teach me a lesson? Because you’re succeeding in that for sure! Now I’m learning just how far a mind can go...” The Joker tapped Luna’s temple with his skinny finger. “Until the breaking point.”

“Is there nothing that can defeat you?” Luna asked, too exhausted to slap away his pointer in her face. “Are you just some disease that sweeps through the land and destroys all in its path?”

“The second part you’re correctomundo about,” the Joker agreed, stretching his bowtie out to fit more snugly around his neck. “Though I prefer cancer. Maybe even an STD. It’d make more sense, since laughter is quite contagious!” Letting loose a chorus of chuckles that sent shivers down Luna’s spine, the Joker slapped his hands together quite suddenly. “Though there is one thing that beats me time and time again.”

“What is it?” Luna asked, a glimmer of hope shining in her heart at the possibility of ending this nightmare once and for all. Anything to just escape this hellish torment.

“More like a who. And even then, I don’t know,” the Joker said, shrugging his shoulders. A shadow behind himself repeated this action, growing larger and larger as the second ticked by. “He’s an enigma wrapped in mystery and double dipped in puzzlement while being deep fried in cholesterol inducing foods. A man of no other caliber could contend with him. Truly a genius. And truly a worthy nemesis for me to fight.”

“Why? Why fight?”

“Why not? What else would I do?” the Joker laughed, his shadow now overshadowing him. It grew even larger, a black induced ghoul of darkness. “Fight someone else? No one can compare, keep up with, or even come close to the Batman!”

“Bat… man?” Luna said, unsure what he meant by this.

“A goody two-shoes that didn’t know how to have a good time,” the Joker explained, the shadow rippling with energy. “He was just a lovable stick in the mud. A complete opposite to me in many ways, while we were the same in many others as well.”

“Are you scared of him?” Luna asked, noticing that the shadow was clinging to the Joker like dripping oil.

“Scared? Why would I be scared of good ol’ Batsy?” the Joker asked, his shadow completely consuming him now.

His slender body grew big and bulky, muscles packed tight underneath. On his chest was a black bat symbol, his ridiculous purple suit from before replaced with a dark grey costume with a black cowl and cape. The mask he wore covered half his face, revealing a hardline jaw with a frown and a dark mask whose eyes sent waves of fear to any who looked directly in them.

“I am Batsy!” the Joker, or rather, Batman, laughed, grin still as disturbing whether in his new form or the old. “Time for you to see how justice really works!”

Unluckily for Luna, closing her eyes away from the nightmarish sight and praying it’d be over quicker did nothing to save her. Neither did screaming either.