The room was lit with soft candle light and filled with the odor of Silver Spoon's perfume, a pleasant aroma of water lilies and freshly clipped grass. After all the stress the two of them had gone through this was just what they needed, time alone together to relieve the awful tension that had plagued the young couple. No phone calls, no spotlights in the sky, just Bruce and Silver, once the rustling under the sheets came to it's satisfied end both ponies emerged.
"Oh Mr. Wayne, you are no colt. Your a stallion!"
"And you Miss Spoon are a mare like no other." The two locked lips as best as ponies could with their elongated muzzles, while awkward the kiss carried their affection for each other and they both felt it. "Silver, I'm sorry for what I said before, I know you do so much for us. And I never want you to think I don't appreciate that."
"It's me who should be apologizing Bruce. I got so worked up and, well to be honest, scared. I haven't said anything to you cause I didn't want to distract you while your doing your work. But I can't stop worrying about you Bruce, every time it's like I'm never going to see you again, and knowing how close you we came to that ... it was too much."
"You know if there's ever anything you need to say then I'll be there to listen, honest." And he meant it. "There is one thing, maybe you can help me with."
Silver propped herself up, "Oh, ready for round two already?"
"No not that," she seemed disappointed. "It's something to do with this whole superhero thing. Well ever since I started crime fighting it seems everypony I save or even interact with doesn't take me seriously. Oats, Fluttershy, even the dammed hostages I rescued, they all had something to say about my name."
"Well what's wrong with that? Everypony has a right to their own opinions."
"Yeah well everypony's opinion seems to be that Batman is a stupid name." Silver was staying very silent on the matter. "Oh god not you too!"
"I never said it was stupid Bruce, never said that."
"Well what then?!"
"It's just, well... What exactly is a 'man' anyway?" Bruce was about to explain but Silver placed a hoof to his lips. "That was rhetorical dear, you've explained it to me before. And that's the problem, you had to explain. 'Man' isn't a word in pony vocabulary, it's stallion here."
"So you're saying I should change it? Go around as 'Batmane' or something else?"
"No not at all Bruce, this super heroics thing is your mission, you're responsibility. Something as important as you're name is a choice only you can make." A soured look crossed her brow, "Although... You're not exactly the same person you were in the world you came from. You use different methods, and from what you described you seem allot more forgiving than the 'other you.' Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to differentiate yourself. Bottom line, it's your choice."
"Urgh, thanks Silver, that clears my problem right up." He said sarcastically.
"Hey, don't take that tone with me. You asked me to listen and I did."
"Hmm, I guess, well you're right. I'll have to think about this some more later. I wonder what I should tackle next though, Screwball escaping from the asylum threw a wrench into my timetable. I was going to try and start putting the squeeze on mob business."
"Well what's stopping you?"
"This-" Bruce searched around the nightstand his hooves returning with a week old edition of the Ponyville Gazette. "Here on page twenty, the mad arsonist of Hooflyn."
"Oh yeah, I think I've read about him, or it could be a her I suppose. Setting fires in low rent sections of Hooflin and no trace left behind. So you want to catch him next?"
"Not want, need. So far nopony's died in any of these fires but it's only a matter of time. Besides Hooflyn is so rough the police hate even going there, I doubt they'd have any luck catching this criminal."
"Your not going to start right now are you?"
"No, I have to make some preparations first. Flame retardant suit, micro fire extinguishers for my utility belt, that sort of thing."
"Good, cause I was hoping we could do something for your father and Screwball tonight."
"Really, what's that?"
"Well she's been ... out of it for a really long time, I think a nice dinner party with some old friends and the family would be a great way for her to ease back into things. Plus it would give you a good opportunity to get to know her when she's not actively trying to kill you."
He gave the suggestion some thought, it sounded appealing and he let her know so. "So who'd we invite?"
"Well I know my parents and them were friends back in the day. I think my mom might have gone to high school with her or something like that. Who else?"
"Um, we could try inviting Oats. Not sure if he'd accept though, he and dad haven't exactly been on speaking terms since his release."
"It doesn't hurt to ask, and if he does accept I'm sure we can keep things civil between the two." Silver marked Oats off on her mental checklist. "Well if we're going with a 'law enforcement' theme we might as well invite Dimple and his family, plus his dad works for yours so that's a tangible connection. I'm sure we can find some other ponies as well, I'll start phoning them and-"
"Silver?"
"Hmm?"
"Make sure to wait until after we 'officially' find out she's been cured. Be kind of a dead giveaway if we start planning the party before then." It wasn't often that Bruce got to be on the other side of warning the mate of a potential flub.
"Nice catch, so then what are we supposed to do until we 'officially' find out then?"
"I can think of a few things." With a swift motion he pounced atop his lover."
"I thought you said you weren't ready for round two."
"I never said that, never."