It was easy to amble along with the other bat ponies, Mac just felt comfortable with them; Sooty's continued come-on's were at first a little odd, but she finally realized that the other mares just ignored them.

Big Mac did freeze when they first left the castle, however. Looking out over Canterlot, she was amazed at how beautiful it looked, how clear, even at night. It's bigger than the trumped-up village I remember. Night's thoughts had a measure of pride in them that was infectious. Mac had to quicken her pace to catch back up with the other ponies. "What is this place we are headed to?" It felt more than a little strange to push back into a conversation, but Mac shoved away the odd feeling.

"You are new to the 'tufts and slick-wings' club, right?" Deep moved in close to Mac, spreading a wing over her back and gesturing up into the air with the other. "Imagine bananas… mangoes… even peaches…" Mac noticed the mare was drooling and, oddly, so was she. "Now imagine a place where you can relax, just ignore the world and not worry about princesses, standing guard… just a mare and her fruit."

"Deep! Down girl." Sharp tried to free Mac of the other mare's wing. "Let her experience this herself, I bet you're hungry?" Eventually getting the wing off Mac, she gestured to a building ahead with muted light coming out the windows.

Mac was unusually sensitive, suddenly realizing that she had been hit on now by both a mare and a stallion, each within about five minutes of the other, and more crazily, neither seemed to mind that the other was interested. Partly my fault, sorry. Your form is mostly my own, but you blended your own strength into what you are now. They see a strong and sleek mare, one who keeps to herself.

"You coming?" Sharp hung back from the group, waiting at the door. While Mac and Night had been thinking together, the little group had moved on. "She wasn't lying, fruit really is a lot better as a bat pony."

Mac trotted forward. "Thanks." She blushed a touch, ducking past Sharp and into the common room. Their little group wasn't the only bunch of bat ponies out for the evening, not even the only guards. Suddenly frozen, Mac stared at the bar. There was fruit on display, as well as fruit-based drinks, but something made her heart beat a little faster. Somepony. Whoa, that might be my fault… sorry.

Tearing her eyes away from the stallion behind the bar, she spotted her group, every one of them giggling and looking right at her. "What?" Mac steps over to the table they had acquired.

"Somepony has a crush!" Deep and Sooty sang together, their giggles raising in pitch sharply.

He was cute. Mac shook her head, but couldn't get the image of the stallion out of it. "Ah was just looking at the fruit."

"All together now or are there more of you coming?" A smiling bat pony mare, clearly a waitress, looked around the little group. "Can I start you off with some drinks?"

"Apple juice!" Mac cut in before the others, the thought of a long glass of the stuff had her wings flicking a little in excitement. "Uh, please, I mean…"

"She is new." Sooty explained away the bad manners with a shrug and a rolled hoof in the air. "I'll have a mango smoothie, thanks Rake." A chorus of "me too" rounded the table, but Sooty got the server's attention once more. "And a mango each, to start."

"Got it all, shouldn't be long, my brave guards!" Rake trotted from the table for the back room of the bar.

"She seemed nice." Mac watched the mare's plot until it fully retreated. That was me again… I think. The mare let out a snort and shook her head.

"There, it happened again!" Cave giggled. "Night Reign… I mean the older Night Reign, she talks to you and you get an odd little look on your face. You can reply to her if you want, we won't feel left out."

"Yeah, what did she say? Was she chiding you for checking out Rake's plot? Or her son?" Sooty, it appeared, wanted all the gritty details. "Come on, have you ever seen wings like that? They are huge!"

Deep giggled along with her companion. "And you know what they say about the size of your wings and the size of your-"

"Nope!" Mac yelled the word. Should have just let them keep going.

"There, again." Cave leaned in close to Mac. "What did she say? Please…"

"She said I should have let them keep going rather than yelling and losing my cool." A deep sigh escaped Mac's throat, despite herself, however, she was actually enjoying this. Probably me again… "Stop." Mac closed her eyes. "Night, stop that. I don't hold it against you. If it is you, or me, does it matter? Can we stop it?"

The whole table was quiet as the mare talked to herself, or seemed to.

But I don't want to change you. "You already changed me, you made me into a mare, a bat pony. Night, if you don't help me adjust to this then I will be in a lot more trouble." Mac tried to imagine a copy of herself in front of her. So… you aren't scared of me? The former stallion laughed. "Of course I am not scared. You are… you are different, strange. But you sound nice, you mean well, and I didn't really have a choice."

"You didn't?" Sooty suddenly had three hooves bopping his nose to shut him up, but the damage was done—Mac opened her eyes and blushed.

"Sorry!" Big Mac knew her cheeks were flushed, she wanted to hide and run, then run and hide some more. Her snout, however, told her that "here" was exactly the right place to be.

"Here we are," Rake set the glass of cider down before Mac, then a curious yellow-orange fruit, "you had the apple juice, the rest mango smoothies, then a nice ripe mango for each of you."

Mac reached with a hoof, lifting the glass up and taking a long pull from it. She was just setting it back when she realized all four of her companions were staring at her still. "What? Oh, right, Night… she…" Mac's attention kept getting stolen by the hefty-looking fruit before her. Would you like help?

"And again!" Cave giggled but was hushed by her friends.

"Yeah, what do I do?" Mac leaned forward and inhaled the scent of the mango point-blank. First, you try to calm down a bit. You pick it up with your wing-claws, use one fang to score down the flesh. Mac did as instructed, carefully lifting the fruit up with her wings and running one fang down the skin. Now you cup your snout around it and blow, hard.

"Where did she learn to do that?" Sooty blinked as the mare used a crazily efficient way to get at the fruit.

Three shrugs accompanied the question, but Cave giggled. "Night is telling her, look at her eye twitch every now and again."

Now peel the fruit, use your teeth, transfer your grip to the inner portion. There is a big seed in the middle, stab into it if you need to. Mac was almost in a trance, performing the actions that were not just reinforced with Night's voice in her head, but with the ancient thestral's own memories. Now eat it, carefully. There is a lot of juice and it will be the best thing you have ever tasted.

The four companions watched on in amazement at how daintily Mac ate the mango. As she nibbled at the fruit, Mac grinned widely. "This is delicious!"

"You were supposed to make a mess for them to laugh at." The stallion from behind the bar was behind Mac, whispering to her. "At least smear a little on your cheeks…" Focus or... Mac accidentally lost track of her snout and the fruit, the former pushing into the latter and smearing sweet juice around her nose and cheeks. "Perfect, now you have the hard task."

Mac turned to the stallion and blinked. "Uh… what… what is that?"

As the stallion leaned forward, Mac froze like a deer in the light. His lips are soft. It was what Mac wasn't trying to think about as the unnamed stallion was kissing her, his tongue gently lapping around her lips. Really soft, and cute. Mac blushed as much as she could in defense.

"The trick," the stallion disengaged their lips, smiling, "is keeping another hungry bat from cleaning you up. Jade Sight." Mac noticed how the stallion got his name, his eyes were a brilliant green. "If you don't mind, later, could you show me how you did that?" He pointed at the mango, still pinned between Mac's wing-claws.

"Oh… uh…" Mac fumbled for what to say. Tell him yes. "Eeyup." Close enough. It was easy to smile, Mac had a mare laughing in her head and she felt… she felt tingly. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Jade had already left to return to the bar.

"Night Reign!" Cave reached a wing over. "You totally got a date with the hottest stallion in the guard!"

"Date?" Confusion reigned supreme in Mac's head, she blinked at the other mare. "It… is it?" Something inside her actually felt okay with the idea of "date". "Huh… anyway, I want to eat more of this." She took another bite of the mango, her tongue slurping the juices up this time, then swirling around her snout. He tastes nice too. Mac's blush was destined to never fade.

"I would give all my pay to know what she just said then. Look at her blush!" Cave sighed and tried to repeat what Mac had done; lifting the mango between her claws, she ran her fang down it. "I totally got this…"

"Now you gotta blow into it, like Night did." So focused was Deep on Cave's attempt to eat the mango, that she left her own alone. When Cave pressed the mango to her snout and blew, all she got was an orange snout as a pile of the fruit sprayed out.

Sooty waggled his eyebrows at Cave, walking around the table. "You wouldn't dare!" The mare was in high spirits, giggling like a loon before the stallion dove at her. Any kiss, or sensual moment, was lost as the stallion soon had his snout covered in as much mango as Cave seemed to start with.

It was easy to forget herself, as Mac laughed and giggled at her friends, it didn't come as too much of a shock that she thought of them as friends.

"Can you do mine?" Deep offered Mac her own mango. "Just peel it, and… could you teach me how to do that?" Mac looked at the offered fruit and smiled.

"Eeyup." Remember how I told you. Nodding to her inner friend, Mac picked the mango up in her claws again. "You need to hold it steady, then start your fang off just below the top of the fruit-" Mac froze, realizing not only was her own friends paying close attention, but anypony at nearby tables had stopped to watch too. Nerves attacked. Relax, this is good practice. Once I have you up to speed, you are going to be training guardsponies yourself.

"What next?" There were nods around the table as Deep asked for more instructions.

"Okay, purse your lips like this." Mac did so and quickly jerked back, a grin plastering her snout as she narrowly avoided a kiss from Deep. "Missed!" Mac laughed with glee. "You should have said if you didn't want your mango!"

"I'll behave…" Deep pulled back. "Missed my kiss, not missing my mango." The mare's pout got more laughs, but she was focused back on Mac.

"So you blow in, as hard as if you had a huge cake of candles to blow out, but not like your life depends on it." Sparing a glance to Cave, Mac blew into the mango. Not a hint of the flesh came out. Perfect, it doesn't take too much, just enough to separate the skin.

Deep looked at the fruit as Mac passed it to her. "That's it?" She used her wing-claws to hold the mango while her teeth peeled back the skin, revealing the perfect fruit remaining. A cheer went up around the bar.

"Can you do mine next?" Jade was back, beside Mac. A glance revealed the stallion was carrying a most perfectly ripe mango in his wing-claws. "Actually… Mom! Let's get everypony a mango to try this with." A great cheer went up around the bar and, sure enough, Rake started bringing out piles of mangoes.

Mac felt a desire to draw back, to hide. I can help, if you want. I can push. The thought needed some poking. Mac looked around at all the ponies clamoring to talk to her. "Ah…"

"Come on, they can work this out on their own, it will be funnier." Jade was suddenly between Mac and the other patrons, his wings slightly spread. "Everypony, this delightful mare needs a break! I assure you she will be back tomorrow to judge the best mango-skinner."

The cool night air brought relief to Mac, as she was hustled out of the bar. "Sorry about that, you looked… well, ready to panic. From the country?" Jade just walked beside Mac, not trying to put his wing around her at all. "Also, after saving the fair mare from imminent destruction, I require her name."

Mac gulped. "Uh…" Use your own if you wish. "Night Reign." The words came easily to Mac. "Before… this. I was just McIntosh, Mac."

"Which would you rather I use?" Jade gave Mac the room she needed to be able to feel comfortable, or so he hoped.

"N-N-Night, is fine." It was simple reasoning for Mac. If everypony called her "Night", then she could just act like Night. She smiled up at the stallion without realizing what she was doing, then dawning comprehension hit her. She was smiling because he seemed nice and had helped her out of a bad situation. "Thank you, Jade." The words were training, in particular trained into him by Granny Smith. A fine bit of training it is.

"So where do you live? In the barracks?" Jade had them on the path back toward the castle, even if it was the more "scenic" of the possible ones.

"Not… not really." Mac closed her eyes, following along by the sound of Jade's hoofsteps. "I have only been… well, like this, for a single night now. Yesterday, Princess Luna had me in… her bed." The last two words came out so quiet that they were almost a whisper.

Jade raised an eyebrow. "Spoken for already? And by Princess Luna?" He whistled between his fangs. "Sorry, I can't compete with her." The sound of the stallion's voice cut to Mac in a way she knew well; it was like telling Apple Bloom "no".

"Ah… well, that is…" Tell him. "Thank you, Jade Sight, for saving me." Before Mac could think more, she leaned up and kissed the stallion, pulling back quickly. "Sorry!"

Mac's hooves lit up the stone path, her sudden gallop stretching all her muscles; well, all of them but her wings. Don't even think about it. You need to learn to fly before you can… he is catching us. Mac swung her head to the side, saw the flying stallion. Rather than dive and corner her, he flew past with a wave of a hoof. "Tomorrow night!" The stallion's voice rang in Mac's ears, but he was gone again before she could answer.

Jade's wings carried him away from the mare. Something fluttered in his chest at the thought of her. "Tomorrow night…" He grinned, the expression of the silly in-love colt he felt like.

Author's Note

Big Mac sat alone on the stage. "Ah'm gonna explain it fer ya." She had been psyching herself up for this, and that meant, oddly, detaching her thoughts from Night's a little. I'm not trapped, I... I am not really Night Reign. "She says she ain't really Night Reign, that she isn't trapped." The mare grinned widely and stood up. Wait, that isn't all of it! Mac plopped her plot back down. Night Reign died a long time ago, but before she did, Princess Luna imprinted me... her, into this armor. I am an echo of her, an image.

"That was a lot of words, Night." Mac had a slightly far-away look. "What if'n I just say 'It ain't her'?" Mac, if I could hug you I would.

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and ~~I~~ they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, ~~I~~ They will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! ~~I~~ They will pick one question per chapter.

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