Applejack stared at her date, eyes wide. "How'd you figger out that me an' the girls were Mare Do Well?" she said, hastily dropping her voice.

Bruce grinned. "I didn't for sure until just now."

"What?" Applejack stared at him, then her eyelids drooped. "Oh. Right."  She glowered at him while he chuckled. "Come on now, seriously. What on earth made you guess--"

He rolled his eyes back thoughtfully and counted points off. "Well, first, I read a lot of papers-- from all over Equestria and beyond, to keep track of current events. Plus I have other sources I rely on for when I want today's news, not yesterday's. Anyway, I'd been following all the stories about the Elements of Harmony ever since you defeated Nightmare Moon. Rarity's fashion line in Hoity Toity's boutique, odd gossip from my friend Fancy Pants, the Grand Galloping Gala, Fluttershy's brief modeling career, Rainbow Dash's win at the Young Flier's competition, news about an impressive showing at the rodeo by a certain young earthpony mare--" Applejack flushed and mumbled at that-- "anyway, you six make the news far more often than you realize."

" I read a story in the Ponyville Gazette about a certain young rainbow colored pegasus saving several people's lives... Then shortly after I read stories about a mystery mare who showed up out of nowhere and started performing heroic deeds herself; A mare who used magic, who showed prodigious strength and speed, who seemed to have a second sense about danger, who flew..." He cocked an eyebrow behind his mask. "It certainly aroused my curiosity. So I started looking back through all the stories and eyewitness accounts. I talked to a few ponies around town---"

"You came all the way out here just for that?"

"In case you haven't guessed, I'm a fan of caped heroes." Mane chuckled and held out his cape. "Ever since I was a colt. I could hardly resist, now could I? I came down and investigated. It was surprisingly easy to piece together."

"First, I found one of the discarded costumes. It used the same sort of cut, cloth and stitching Rarity's boutique is known for. Very meticulous work, very high quality, especially for what amounted to an overblown Nightmare Night costume. I also noted the color of Mare Do Well's magic from photos, when she patched the Ponyville dam; same color as Twilight Sparkle. And  it would take someone who was a proficient athlete to stop a runaway wagon with her bare hooves or toss a lariat like that. Like, say, somepony who had a small mountain of ribbons from various rodeos, and who spent years bucking apple trees?

"As to the danger sense, anypony in Ponyville can tell you about Pinkie Pie's pinkie-sense. And probably will, given an opportunity." He shrugged. "From there, putting together a theory was easy."

"That's still a little bit of a stretcher," Applejack pointed out.

"I know, that's why I said it was a theory," Mane continued. " It was obviously more than one pony, but was it the ones I thought?

"Well, during that whole time Rainbow Dash and Mare Do Well were running around Ponyville, pictures were taken. Hundreds of them. I went back and checked; whenever Mare Do Well was in the scene, your little group was always in the audience, but at least one of you was always missing. On least three occasions one of you would disappear in one photograph only to reappear in the next."

"The only hole in my theory was why you hadn't included Rainbow Dash in on it. Why were you all working together as a team, but cutting the fastest and most daring member of your group out? Had there been some sort of falling out between her and the rest of you? Why did you give up the whole thing when Rainbow Dash finally confronted you, in the middle of your own ticker tape parade, no less?"

Applejack gave an awkward little "heh" and rubbed the back of her head with one hoof. "Cause we sorta did what we set out to do. The whole thing was to teach Dash a lesson about not gettin' such a swelled head. After she rescued that filly from the well, she started getting full of herself. We wanted to show her a real hero didn't go around hoggin' glory for themselves."

Bruce Mane looked in his drink and gave a little smile. "I know, I figured that out," he said. The smile ran away from his face. "I can't tell you how disappointed I was in you all for that."

Applejack jerked her head back. "Disappointed?" she asked.

"Yes!" Bruce Mane exclaimed. "Your friend was helping people and saving lives. So what if she got a little boastful? What skin was that off your nose?"

"Hey now, feller!" Applejack said, getting a little angry. " You have no idea how bad she got. We were tryin' to help a friend learn somethin'."

"So you were trying to teach Rainbow Dash not to be egotistical--" he said patiently.

"Exactly!"

"--By dressing up in bright purple spandex and stealing the spotlight for yourselves?"

"Y-- NO! I--" the farmpony made a frustrated "mumph" sound and crumpled up her nose. She stamped her hoof in vexation and turned away. She had a mouthful she wanted to say, but she knew when she was busted. That had been the plan, right from the start. "You weren't there. She was braggin', eatin' up all the cheers and the praise and begging for more."

"The way your friend Rarity chases the spotlight with her fashions?" Bruce pointed out. "Or the way you collect rodeo ribbons? I don't see you giving up that trophy the town gave you for saving them from a stampede. She's a stunt flyer, Applejack. A performer. I know performers, I've had to work with several. All a performer really gets for what they do is applause. It's as much a part of their pay as the bits they get.  And you took that away from her."

"I know that wasn't what you were intending," Bruce went on. "But in the end, that's what you did. You stole her thunder, took her fans away, made her look like a fool, and from the reactions I heard from ponies when I asked about Dash, turned her into a Ponyville laughingstock because she got too proud of saving lives for your tastes.

"And you kept it up till she finally quit trying to be a hero entirely. Then you threw your own cape in the trash. Mission accomplished." He shook his head. "That's what disappointed me. I don't think you know how many ponies you hurt."

"Hurt? Who'd we hurt?" Applejack said, wheeling on him, glaring.

Bruce Mane didn't even flinch. "Rainbow Dash, for starters.

"You're lucky Rainbow Dash has skin like a rhinoceros. Most friends would have been mortally wounded. Make no mistake, she probably hurt like hell. Probably still does. But she was hardly the only one.

"I didn't figure out the last bits on my own," he said. "See, I have a little niece who lives here in Ponyville, sweet little filly, doesn't even have a cutie mark yet. She was an absolutely rabid Mare Do Well fan... had posters, covered her bedroom walls with pictures, even had a little Mare Do Well hat and mask and cape. I went to visit her while I was in town, after doing my little detective routine; all her Mare Do Well things were gone. Out in the trash."

"She'd been looking forward to that parade, you know. But little filly had the mumps that day, had to stay in. She'd thought it was the worst day ever. Till she saw Mare-Do-Well running and leaping up and down the alley below her own bedroom window."

"Oh no..." Applejack lamented.

"Then, of course, she saw the whole thing. Rainbow Dash catching Pinkie Pie, and unmasking her. The rest of you coming out of hiding. Revealing the whole joke to Rainbow Dash. No masked hero, no Mare Do Well, just a bunch of mares pulling a prank on a friend who'd annoyed them. My sister told me she cried her eyes out the whole night. Oh, she never told anypony, not her mother, not her little friends ... she didn't even tell me, till that point... but sooner or later she will."

"Now understand, I didn't hear this from her till long after I'd figured out most of the rest," he said. "And it took some time before my niece finally told everyone what she'd seen. But it certainly answered the only question I'd had left: why did Mare Do Well give up and disappear?"  

His gaze lanced into her, but his voice was still patient and soft. "Your little prank broke my niece's little heart. And the hearts of who knows how many other colts and fillies. Colts and fillies who looked up to Rainbow Dash, only to have another grownup make her look like a fool. Colts and fillies who looked up to Mare Do Well, only to have her disappear." The corner of his mouth quirked. "Broke my heart a little bit, too."

"As a personal request: Next time you want to tell your friend she's getting a swollen head, would you mind talking to her first?"

Applejack threw her forelegs over the balcony railing and hung her head.  She was the Bearer of the Element of Honesty. She hadn't felt exactly wrong about it at the time, but all the same the whole Mare Do Well thing had itched at her. After what Bruce Mane had told her, it outright stung. "Is that why you agreed to be my date?" she asked, a little scornfully. "To throw all that back at me?"

"I won't say it wasn't on my mind," he sounded amused. "But we all make mistakes; I got over that one ages ago. And my niece will too, eventually. I only felt it was fair to let you know that you made one."

"How is what you did just now with that lost little filly any different than what we did?" She demanded to know.

Bruce Mane shrugged. "Simply put? Not much... except I gave her a hero. You took one away." He stopped and looked out at the night, pensive. "We..." he hesitated. "Heroes need praise. Everypony does. Whether that's wrong or not, I don't know. But is it wrong to want to hear somepony say 'thank you?' To feel like you did something great? To feel worthy and worthwhile?"

Applejack tapped her hoof. " I cain't say no to that," she admitted.

"That's why we have to be so careful with little childrens' stories...with the heroes we give them. They believe so deeply, and we can break them so easily. That little filly--" he nodded back in the ballroom. "---she'll figure out eventually that it wasn't really BatStallion who found her Mommy for her. Just a grownup in a costume. But she'll remember it fondly, and hopefully carry away the lesson that anyone can take a moment to be a hero..." he grinned. "Even a goofy stallion who runs a chain of grocery stores."

"While your niece learned from us that heroes are all fakes," Applejack said, her ears and wings drooping.

"I wouldn't leave it at that," Bruce Mane said kindly. He stepped up next to her.

"This wasn't the only reason I went on this date with you, you know." He set his punch glass on the rail. "Like I said, heroes attract me. And no, I didn't mean Mare Do Well. I'm talking about six ordinary ponies who stepped up and saved Equestria again and again. One earth pony in particular. Country girl, rodeo pony, businessmare, who didn't have wings or magic or even a Pinkie Pie sense, but faced down dragons and manticores and stampedes and Changelings. Who held her own against Discord and Nightmare Moon with nothing but her four good hooves. And who runs a farm on the sweat of her brow and the strength of her back. Who even when she makes mistakes at what she does, comes back twice as strong as before." He looked her in the eye. "For a pony who's spent most of his life behind a desk, that can't help but be ... intriguing."

Applejack didn't look up, but a faint smile and a blush graced her cheeks. "Well, y'all certainly learned how to smooth-talk back in Trotham, didn't ya," she chuckled.

"Well, I try."

"And y' certainly gave me some things to think about," she said soberly. "Ah think I owe Rainbow Dash a little talking-to, at least." And maybe we owe something to another little broken hearted filly, she reflected. She wasn't sure how they were going to fix that, but she had some ideas.

"Is she here?"

"No, don't see her out here, either-- oh 'scuse us..."

The farmpony and the city stallion turned around, puzzled. Two stallions in rather cheap bedsheet ghost costumes had stumbled out onto the balcony with them. They peered around, apparently looking for something. "Can we help you?" Bruce ventured.

The two started. They seemed startled to realize they were speaking to one of the Bearers and her date. "Oh, don't mind us, just looking for a-- well a filly who wandered off, ahem," one said.

"Have you seen her? black coat, purple mane, about yea tall--?" the other one held his hoof up off the floor.

Applejack gave the two a skeptical look. "Nnno, cain't say as I have," she said.

The two gave a grunt of exasperation. "Eh, didn't think so. Never mind us, then..." The two left the balcony, peering suspiciously at corners and shadows.

Applejack scowled. "Ah don't like that," she muttered. "Who were those two and why were they lookin' for Nyx? Only one black and purple filly Ah know of. Ah think I'm gonna go have a word with the guard--"

Bruce stopped her with a hoof. "I don't think that will be necessary," he said. " Those two were the guard. Probably assigned to keep an eye on Nyx, if I don't miss my guess."

Applejack looked at him. "How do you know that?"

Bruce Mane grinned. "I heard one of them go 'clank' when he brushed up against the doorway," he said. "That and their gold armor shows through the cloth in the right light."

"Ain't you slick. Should we be worried they cain't find her?" Applejack said.

"Probably not," Bruce Mane chuckled. "When I was a colt I had bodyguards of my own. I recognize the look; they're at that 'annoyed but not really concerned' phase. She's managed to run off ahead of her tail, is all.  Nyx is obviously in the palace, and she's under the same roof as Celestia, Luna, the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and hundreds of guards in and out of uniform. Right now this is probably the safest building in all of Equestria. No need to worry."

Sundiver and Lightning Blitz trotted through the rooms and corridors of the palace, the fringes of their makeshift ghostly costumes tangling around their fetlocks. Both guardponies were sorely vexed. "Well we checked the ballroom and the throneroom," Sundiver said, "what next?"

"We start following the haunted house tour," Blitz said. " Ask each of the guards in costume if they've seen her. She's in the palace, we know that much. With ponies handing out candy it's not likely she decided to go off and sniff flowers in the gardens. If we don't spot her after one lap or find someone who has, we tell the Princesses we've lost track of her." His grimace went unseen under the bedsheet.

"But we could just miss her a dozen times like that," Sundiver complained.

They entered the foyer, stumbling past a couple of workers who were busy fixing up some minor damage to the ornate mosaic inlaid in the floor. "then we'll split up and go from opposite directions," Blitz said. "Got your dragonfire?" Sundiver nodded and produced something that looked like a cross between a perfume bottle and a cigarette lighter. Inside something halfway between a glowing liquid and a living flame sloshed and flickered. "Good. You see her, send me a paper scrap telling me you found her, and I'll do the same. Now let's go find her before we get in any more trouble." The two headed off in opposite directions.

Agents Omega and Lambda sighed in relief as the two thinly-disguised guards departed. That had been a close one. If those two had stopped to question them as they were setting the last stones in place, the whole plan would have collapsed. It was just too obvious that the runes they were laying in the floor were not a proper part of the mosaic there. Months of careful, covert work, planting runestones in the stonework of the castle, laying out subtle ley lines in the tiling, planting crystals at the appropriate locations, would have gone up in smoke. There was no way to avoid the risk; these last runes HAD to go in place on this night, and no sooner.

But now the last pieces of the puzzle were in place. Soon, in a few short hours, the nascent threat to Equestria-- the infant form of Nightmare Moon-- would be destroyed, gone forever.

"Mom? Can I ask you something?"

Twilight grinned. "You just did." Ink Spot chuckled.

Nyx shot Twilight a heavy-lidded look that spoke volumes of a filly's impatience with witty adults. "Seriously."

"Okay, okay, what?"

Nyx bit her lip and thought as they walked. "Why.... why did Celestia let Nightmare Night happen?"

Twilight looked at her daughter, puzzled. "How do you mean?"

Nyx's brow furrowed. "I mean, I know how it got started... well now I do," she said, rolling her eyes. "But making a holiday about how Nightmare Moon,  I mean Luna, was a horrible monster.... that had to hurt Celestia's feelings. And it sure must've hurt Luna's feelings a lot when she came back. Why did she let ponies keep celebrating it?"

"That was kind of complicated," Twilight admitted with a smile. "I asked Princess Celestia that once..." that, and a few other more personal questions about being deceived, she recalled. There had been quite a bit of hurt in that little talk. "She said, in order for Princess Luna to be freed, ponies had to forget. They had to forget who she really was, what she was really like."

"But why?" Nyx demanded.

"Because if they hadn't, then the Elements of Harmony might not have worked," Twilight said. "The ponies using them had to be absolutely one hundred percent sure what they were doing was the right thing. If we had known Nightmare Moon was really Luna inside, if we'd felt even a little bit guilty or sorry or afraid of hurting her, if we had hesitated.... everything would have been lost."

"Ahhh," Ink Spot said. "I had wondered about that."

"When ponies started celebrating Nightmare Night, of course it hurt Celestia's feelings. A lot. But she knew that it would help ponies forget who Nightmare Moon really was. So she let it continue."

"Okay, but---" Nyx's face scrunched up. "Why did she let it go on after Luna was back? Didn't Luna get mad?"

"She did," Twilight agreed. "She was as unhappy as you could imagine. Everypony was frightened of her. Largely because... well, it sort of looked like she was having a relapse."

        "A relapse?" Nyx asked.

Twilight nodded. "You see, when Luna got cured, she was small, much smaller than she is now. Her coat was lighter, her mane was pale blue and didn't blow about like it does. She also had a quiet, tiny voice-- she looked, well, small and innocent and dainty. But when she came back for Nightmare Night she was, um--"

"Taller, darker, and louder?" Ink Spot offered.

Twilight's mouth quirked. "To say the least." She winced. "We were expecting a sweet, shy, sad little princess and we got--"

"Brian Blessed in a tiara?" Ink Spot interjected with a grin.(1)

"Ink Spot....! Anyway, she came flying in, all big and dark and billowy Nightmare Moon maned, through a thundercloud. In a giant black carriage pulled by bat-winged ponies. And started bellowing at everyone in the Canterlot Royal Voice. It... didn't go over well."

"She scared everypony silly. She was miserable. But once she got into the spirit of things and started having fun...." Twilight shrugged. "Now it's her favorite holiday."

"So wait; she was miserable because she scared ponies, until she started having fun scaring ponies?" the crease in Nyx's brow was in danger of becoming permanent. "That makes absolutely no sense."

Twilight sighed. "I don't know quite how to put it in words..."

"Let me try," Ink Spot offered. Twilight shrugged and made a 'go ahead' motion. "As it so happens I once asked Princess Luna the same questions. Why did she like Nightmare Night at all? What did she see in it? I mean, it's all about fear and scaring ponies, isn't it?

"She told me I had it all wrong. It isn't about fear, she said. It's about courage."

Mother and daughter shot him a puzzled look. "I know, confusing," he said. "But--- oh well, look here." He stepped behind a suit of armor, motioning for them to join them, and then pointing down the hallway. Twilight and Nyx got behind him and peered around his shoulder. Down at the end of the hallway was another of the haunted-castle setups that currently dotted the palace. A female guard, done up as a witch, was cackling away over a cauldron; a few yards away stood a young couple dressed as a clown and a mummy, with a tiny filly between them dressed up as a ladybug. The filly had her trick or treat bag handle in her mouth and was regarding the witch with wide, fearful eyes; both parents were gently urging her to walk up to the crone.

"Come on, now, there's a girl," Ink Spot urged under his breath. Slowly, timorously, the ladybug filly inched her way up the hall with all the air of somepony who would much rather be yarding her way down it.

Nyx frowned, "That's mean," she whispered.

Ink Spot shushed her gently. "Wait, wait, let's see if she makes it..."

Finally, shakily, the little filly reached the witch and her cauldron. "Tickowtwee?" she asked, voice quavering. The witch cackled and reached into her cauldron and pulled out a lollipop, dropping it in the bag. "There you go, dearie," she said, smiling. The filly grinned and, still jittery, galloped back to her parents with her booty as fast as her little legs would go.

"Growing up is a scary time," Ink Spot said. "A foal is so little, and the world is so big. You have all sorts of fears: darkness and nighttime, strange places and things, thunder, things that go bump in the night.

"But here, on Nightmare Night, children get a chance to face their fears. A chance to learn that those things they were so afraid of are just empty shadows, that they can laugh at them, that behind all the spooky noises and lights the world isn't such a scary place after all. That a little courage makes those fearful shadows fall away. And, if they show a little pluck--" he reached under his hat and pulled out a sucker. "the rewards can be oh so sweet." He unwrapped the sucker and popped it in Nyx's mouth, chuckling at her expression.

"That help you understand, squirt?"

Nyx grinned and nodded.

"I like that," Twilight said, smiling at him. "Mind if I quote you on that in one of my papers someday?"

Ink Spot pretended to think it over. "Let me talk to my publicist first," he said.

"Well let's find this 'Flitter' filly and give her candy back. Nyx? Are you okay?" Twilight said, concerned. The filly was pulling an alarming number of facial contortions.

"I' ogay," Nyx said around her mouthful of candy. Her eyes crossed as she worked the stick of the sucker around in her violently puckered mouth. "I' ju' dad da wowwipop id SOUR APPUL...."

"whoops," Ink Spot said. "Gave you one of my super sours by mistake. Here, this'll make it better." he popped a second, yellow lolly into Nyx's mouth next to the other.

"Aagh!" Nyx shouted when the flavor hit her abused tastebuds. "I'th WEMON! An' ith thourer than the firth!!" She sat on the floor and pawed at her mouth with her hooves, trying, and failing, to dislodge the candies from her puckered-shut mouth.

Ink Spot put his head down next to hers, a canary-eating grin plastered on his face under his enormous fake mustache. "Did I mention this is a great holiday for pranks, too?"

Nyx made a "grrumph" noise and glared at him, lollipop sticks jutting up like tusks.

Twilight nearly laughed herself sick.

1)Honestly, you silly humans. Do you think yours is the only Brian Blessed in the universe?