The Stories about Ruby Heart, The Balloon Mare

“Mr. Latex?” said nurse. “You have a foal. A beautiful healthy unicorn filly”.

All ponies turned their heads to see a grown-up unicorn stallion squealing with joy like a little girl.

“Gosh! Can I see her?”

“Of course,” nurse smiled. “Your wife and daughter are resting now, but you’ll have a few minutes. Just please, try not to be… so excited”.

“Right, sorry. It is my first foal so I carried away a little”.

“It’s okay. We got used to proud fathers’ antics. Follow me”

It took them some time to travel down the long corridors of Canterlot hospital. At last, the nurse opened a door and Latex stepped into the ward. His heart was beating like crazy in his chest, as he approached his wife’s bed, levitating small flower bouquet and stuffed toy before him.

“Hi,” whispered Lava Heart, arguably the most beautiful mare in Equestria. His wife. “Hush, she’s sleeping”.

She carefully wiped milk from petite pink foal’s lips with napkin.

Smooth Latex looked at his daughter.

“Darling, are you crying?”

“No,” stallion wiped his tears. “It's just…”

“Liquid pride?” Lava Heart gave him her beautiful smile.

“Yes. Kinda… “

“I'm terribly sorry,” nurse said, “but visit time is over. Don't worry, soon you'll have all the time in the world for your gals”.

Smooth Latex walked away from hospital with the joy in his heart. He is father now! It's so exciting!

But one thought troubled him.

“She is pink from horn to tail. My coat is light gray, Lava's chocolate brown. As far as I know, we both don't have pink relatives…” He threw away this thought. After all, pony genetics are even harder to understand than quantum physics.

Ruby Heart was a very curious and outgoing filly. Well, it's not too hard to make friends when your mother is one of the best pastry-cooks in the city famous for her lava cakes (not made from actual lava much to Ruby's relief) and your father is a prominent researcher at the rubber toys factory, who can easily support her parties with stunningly beautiful balloons and not yet released prototype toys. However, her charm and playful nature – that's what helped her make lot of friends.

Much to Lava’s discontent, Ruby didn’t show any interest in cooking. She was spending much of her time with father, always asking him about his work and begging for new balloons for her new party.

“It seems Heart's pastry-cooks dynasty will end with me” said Lava once with a deep sigh.

As she spoke, Latex looked away with sadness in his eyes. Ruby had no clue why.

There was only one place in her family home that was off-limits to a little filly: her father's home workshop. What wondrous things he was creating there? Ruby's imagination pictured rainbow world with inflatable castles and beautiful balloons inside much bigger balloons inside even more of them… She must see it! However, daddy was vigilant and cut short each her attempt to visit his wonderland.

However, she found the way eventually.

It was one of those days when Latex and Lava were going to leave the house for a day for some business. They hired a foalsitter to watch over her.

Ruby did not like staying with foalsitters. They always tended to vocalize unneeded rules and hinder her party preparations.

However, this particular foalsitter was different. She was pink (just like Ruby), she had beautiful sparkly multicolored mane… And she was an alicorn.

“Hi, Ruby”, she said. “My name is Cadance. Care to show me what are you up to?”

It was the best day in Ruby's foalhood life. They baked cupcakes, sang songs and played games… Cadance even helped Ruby to prepare for the next house party.

“You are the best foalsitter!” filly shouted in excitement. “Please, Cadance, foalsit me every time!”

“We'll see, Ruby, we'll see”, she answered and then got distracted for a moment. “Oh, can you wait for a bit… Someone is calling me via magic spell”

Cadance exited the room, leaving Ruby alone. Filly sat on couch for a while but then noticed a light coming from under the workshop door. “Did daddy forgot to turn it off?” she thought. She approached the door and touched it with her hoof. It moved. Door was unlocked. Her wonderland was there and she can come there at last! However, she hesitated. Should she open it or not? Definitely, yes!

Door creaked as she pushed it.

She saw a mare inside. Her lifeless eyes stared right into Ruby's soul.

Filly gasped, but quickly calmed herself up. “It's an inflatable doll,” filly guessed, noticing a valve on toy's side, “pretty big and realistic” Maybe it was another prototype product, which daddy prepared as a surprise for her birthday? She quickly inspected the room.

Much for her disappointment, there was no inflatable castles and balloon cities. It was just an artisan's crafting place with table and instruments of the craft. “Wow, with these entire materials one can make gazillion balloons! Why did daddy hid this from me?”

Suddenly, a strange item caught her attention. It was cylindrical in shape with some strange veins and protrusions. “What is it? A rubber copy of tree trunk?” Ruby came closer to see that this “trunk” was connected to a pair of oval soft to touch cushions. “Oh, it must be some kind of magic wand! Or maybe not…” Ruby griped it with her forelegs but this thing stayed on its place. It seems this “magic wand” had a heavy-duty suction cup at its base…

However, one should never underestimate a power of a curious filly. Ruby pried harder and harder until she heard a satisfying “POK!”

With the toy disengaged, she flew head over hooves back to the main room right into Cadance's telekinetic hold.

“Whew, Ruby” said babysitter. “You flew so fast, I almost thought you are off to Ponyville. Where have you been?”

“I visited daddy's secret laboratory! And guess what I found? This!”

Ruby did not understand why Cadance's muzzle became dark red of a sudden but she noted a strange excitement in alicorn's eyes.

It was a nice summer day in Canterlot, and everything was perfect. As always, Lava was baking muffins for their future picnic, Ruby was playing with her balloons and Latex was doing something in his workshop.

A loud racket startled little filly. She galloped to the kitchen to see her mother laying on the floor unconscious with the grimace of pain on her face. A baking tray lied next to her and freshly cooked muffins was scattered around.

“Mommy!” she shouted. “What's happening?”

Ruby poked Lava with her muzzle. Nothing changed.

“Please, speak to me! I'm scared!”

Tears began to rain from filly's eyes as she fell helplessly on her mother's flank.

“What… What is going on?” asked Latex who just appeared in the kitchen. “Oh, my! Honey, hold on! I'll get you to the hospital!”

Smooth Latex had a long conversation with doctor. Ruby overheard a couple of scary words from it: “malignant growth”, “unforeseen complications”, “intensive therapy”…

“That's not fair,” she mumbled. “Mommy is healthy and strong as any other earth pony!”

“Don't worry, Ruby,” said nurse. “Everyone can become ill. But, as you said before, your mother is strong. She will get better”.

She lied. Lava Heart died after a week of unsuccessful therapy.

Ruby was silent on the funeral. She used all of her tears and simply could not cry more. She nodded to yet another condolence from a relative and gave a big sigh.

“Daddy, please, can we go home?”

“Of course, my dear”

It was hard to recognize Ruby Heart then. She canceled all her parties and tore down decorations from the wall of her room. She dismissed all of her friends and stayed in her room alone, staring at the wall. Even her puffy mane and tail became “deflated” and dull.

Latex found her in this state.

“Your friend Lyra sent a greeting card,” he said.

“Drop it in the box,” answered Ruby

“Ah, the box. You know, that box cannot be the answer to everything,”

“But what else can I do?”

“For starters, you should get out of the box”

“But how? Mommy is dead! I simply can't cope with it!”

“Me too, dear, me too,” sighed Latex. “Lava was everything for me: my muse, my motivation and the most special of all ponies… But we must move on. Perpetual sorrow is not an option”.

“You think I could do it?” Ruby sobbed.

“Of course! You carrying her family name, you are as strong as she was. Be sure, she is watching us right now from the heavens and she want us to continue living our normal lives”.

Ruby hugged Latex, wiping her tears.

“Thank you daddy. I will try”.

“That's my girl,” Latex smiled. “Say, how about a tour of rubber factory to lighten your mood? I reckon I never took you there…”

“Oh, daddy, I'd like to!”

It was an exciting tour. Daddy donned a hardhat and lab coat for Ruby and they took a walk through factory's sections. Filly was delighted to see the full process of transforming the bubbly latex mass into beautiful balloons. Then he showed her R&D department. A dozen of researchers were working there, experimenting with molds and raw materials to create new merchandize. One of daddy's friends even allow Ruby to make a mold for new rubber toy.

“Well, who do we have here,” said some rich-looking earth pony. “You brought your daughter to the work at last, are you, Latex? About time!”

“Oh, Ruby, let me introduce you to the factory's owner, Mr. Venture”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Venture!” Ruby took a bow.

“Are you here for an inspection, sir?” asked Latex.

“No, actually I'm giving a tour to my son, Junior. He really need an introduction to our family business”

He stepped aside to show a shy unicorn colt.

“Say hello, Junior, and get acquainted with our prominent researcher Smooth Latex and his beautiful daughter, Ruby Heart. Their family is working at our factory for as long as it stands here!”

“Yes,” Latex nodded with pride, “it's my grand-grand-grandfather Caoutchouc who created a vulcanization formula and made this all possible”.

“Of course!” Mr. Venture agreed. “And it's my grand-grand-grandfather Risky Venture who believed this will end in profitable business! Well, kids, can you play for a bit? I'd like to discuss something with Latex”.

Junior was a shy colt, but Ruby managed to get his interest and made him talking. They even engaged the game of tag in the test chamber.

“Well, look at them,” Mr. Venture smiled. “Ten minutes pass, and they play like a best friends already. If everything will go that well in the future, our families' bond may become much tighter…”

“Daddy,” said Ruby, on their path home. “I really want to work on Mr. Venture's factory in the future!”

Latex looked at her flank. A shiny new cutiemark appeared on it. Red heart-shaped balloon.

“And you will,” he smiled.