“Hush now, hold thy tongue, thy night has yet to have begun… caress thy wings with dapple snow, of midnight stars and moonglory glow…I wish, I pray, never for day, when stars evade and war doth….fade…”
 
Sireen Let her voice fall to a whisper as the melody carried off through the deep forest around her. The park around her was still and quiet once more. She sighed and rolled her shoulders in an attempt to get more relaxed.
 
She failed to succeed.
 
Guarding the Main Canterlot Park was one of the most relaxing and peaceful jobs she’d ever taken, sadly,it was also one of the most boring jobs for a night guard to take up. Barely anything ever happened! She closed her eyes, frowning and angling her spear up against her shoulder plate.
 
“What I wouldn’t give for a good tussle right about now…” Her gaze slanted to the nearby building she was stationed at. A small outpost building built in the center of the park; for any pony who got lost and needed to find a way out.
 
At three am in the morning.
 
Scanning the surrounding pathways for signs of life, and finding none, she opened a wing and slowly started to preen. Nibbling at the leather in between her bony limbs and creating a tingling sensation that made her back muscles relax slowly. Her fangs were great for nipping at small clusters of the velvet fur and then using her tongue, she would lick it back into position.
 
A regular thing for her on these evenings, preening.
 
She finished the first wing and splayed it open to admire her work. Not bad, considering she had no products to make it look better. She purred and closed it, opening the other one.
 
As she preened, the night life around her continued on. Somewhere off in the city a firework went off, making her pause and flip her ears towards the loud noise; no doubt the guard were looking into that.
 
She cursed her luck. That would have been more fun then what she was doing, guarding a bunch of bushes and–
 
A noise caught her ears.
 
Looking up, she spotted a pair of ponies trotting down the path towards her. She snapped her wing closed and stood at attention, hoping they hadn’t spotted her blase posture.
 
“But daaaad six won’t be enough, I need like, fourteen to make it work!” Sireen watched as the pair drew closer to her, still about fifty or so feet away. One was a foal, no older then five or six maybe, and the other was an adult. By the glow around the little one Sireen was able to make out that they were a unicorn, while the adult was a pegasus.
 
Father and son. Sireen smiled at that. Families were a rare thing to have for bat ponies, as their visage struck quite a large amount of fear into the populace, even with luna defending their reputations. Even so, not many ponies wanted a bat pony for a mate, and Sireen’s smile diminished slightly as the thought hit her.
 
As the ponies drew closer to her Sireen listened to their conversation with avid curiosity, anything to break the monotony.
 
“I know, I know, but fireflies aren’t out this time of year Crisp, you’ll just have to wait and see if some appear later in the year, okay?”
 
The Colt sighed and mumbled something into the dark before looking ahead and spotting Sireen under the lamp light. Sireen inwardly cursed, watching as The colt came to a stand still and his eyes widened to the size of saucers. Next to him, his dad halted and looked back.
 
“What is it Crisp, something wro–” He was cut off as the foal bolted past him and right up to Sireen, much to her surprise. he stared at her with an intensity that slightly intimidated.
 
“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!”
 
Now her eyes were widening. The Colt walked left and right looking her up and down before jumping and bucking the air twice excitedly and zipping back to his dad. The dad had spun full circle and was now being dragged along by his hoof over to her. He had the decency to smile sheepishly at Sireen in an attempt to silently apologize.
 
“Dad dad! Look! it’s a living breathing bat pony!” Sireen raised a brow slowly at the foal, unsure of how to react.
 
‘U-um…Is there any way I can be of service, citizens?” The Dad chuckled and scooped his son up in his wings, much to the foal’s chagrin.
 
 
“Ahah, um, I’m not sure. What do you think Crisp, is there anything she can help us with?”
 
If looks could kill, Sireen would have just lost her pulse at the kid’s adorable face. His nose scrunched up in disgusted and annoyance at his dad’s coddling. He wriggled out of his dad’s grasp and huffed up at the grown up.
 
“Daaaad! your gonna make me look bad!” Sireen had to stiffle a giggle as the foal turned and promptly sat in front of her, trying to look big with a puffed out fluffy chest. The foal cleared his throat, and produced a piece of paper and a pen from thin air. He tried to look up at her but shied away every time.
 
It was adooorable.
 
“T-there is something you could help me with, um… Well, I-um… Wouldyougivemeyourautographpleaseohpleaseohplease!?”
 
both Sireen and the father blinked in unison. The bat pony nodded and leaned closer. The foal blushed and stifled back a giggle as the bat approached.
 
“Um, I couldn’t quite understand that little one, could you repeat that please?” Sireen watched as the foal blushed harder and nodded, before taking several deep breaths while Sireen stood back to her full hieght and smiled to the dad.
 
“Is um, this normal behavior when he sees one of us?” The dad chuckled and re-positioned his wings.
 
“Ah pretty much, although he hasn’t seen a bat pony up close until now. Oh, excuse me, My name is Iron Crest, and this is my son Crisp Words, what is your name miss?” Sireen couldn’t help but blush as Iron crest bowed lightly whilst speaking.
 
“I-it’s, forgive me. It’s Sireen Wind. It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” Iron smiled and nodded, while Crisp jumped and hooted into the air.
 
“Yes! she likes me!” He danced around in a trot before noticing the two adults giggling at his antics and stopped.
 
“Hey, it’s not funny!” Sireen couldn’t help but chuckle,
 
“Okay, I suppose not to you. What was it you wanted Crisp?” She smiled, flashing her fangs to him, making the colt murmur in awe.
 
“I… um, I wanted…uh… oh! I wanted to know if maybe I could get um, you know…your autograph?” he floated the pen over to her and held the paper in his teeth, looking up at her with the biggest eyes she’d seen him have yet.
 
She smiled and thought back to her previous statement about her post’s lack of excitement, as she leaned down and grasped the pen in her mouth.
 
Maybe with little admirer’s like Crisp Words and his father around, maybe, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to guard the park.