The Heart's Shell

“Wee! This is so much fun!”

The ponies of Ponyville were having a blast. Because of the past couple of days, they were able to enjoy winter. It came much faster than expected because of a certain rainbow maned Pegasus called Rainbow Dash who tried to stop winter from coming, but instead she made it come sooner.

She was doing it for her pet tortoise Tank who was going into hibernation. But sadly, having to say goodbye to him hours later was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was sliding down the snow as she crashed into the ice by accident. Fluttershy watched from a distance but calmly walked up to her. She was concerned that the shoes that Pinkie Pie was wearing were not really ice friendly.

“You should be more careful Pinkie” Fluttershy said, concerned.

“Relax Fluttershy, I didn’t hurt myself” Pinkie replied.

“Yes, but you stacked”

“Fluttershy you silly filly. I’m not worried about my pride being destroyed; I’m the element of laughter for crying out loud!”

The two mares just laughed.

“What’s going on, darlings?” Rarity asked, trotting over to Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. Applejack was with her.

“I crashed into the ice” Pinkie replied.

“Are ya ok?” Applejack asked.

“She is, I think, I don’t know. She might have an ice scratch or something” Fluttershy replied.

“I’M FINE!” Pinkie angrily replied.

“I wouldn’t worry too much ‘bout Pinkie, but maybe Rainbow Dash” Applejack confirmed to Fluttershy.

“Why Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because she ain’t here right now”.

“Oh right, you do have a point. We did leave her and Twilight alone by Tank’s hibernation spot”

“Hi girls” the other mares turned their heads to see their friend Twilight Sparkle walking towards them. “Rainbow Dash won’t be joining us just yet. She’s staying behind for a while”

The other mares looked at her with confusion.

“Why is she staying behind?” Rarity asked.

“Apparently she’s reading a daring do story to Tank” Twilight replied “I have no idea when she is going to come join us though. I think it would be best that we give her some time with him”

“Do you really think that Rainbow Dash would ever truly accept Tank’s hibernation?” Pinkie asked. Twilight just smiled.

“I shouldn’t be too worried about that, Rainbow loves Tank. And she knows that the one thing to prove she loves him is to let him go. When he does wake up in three months’ time, we will be able to rejoice. After all, Tank is our friend too isn’t he” Twilight replied.

The other four mares started to tear up to Twilight’s words. They hung their heads and so did Twilight.

“That was beautiful” Fluttershy sniffed.

“I feel so sorry for Rainbow, waiting this long” Rarity said.

“Don’t worry sugarcubes” Applejack replied, wiping her tears away “If I know Rainbow, she is truly loyal to her friends, especially her tortoise, she shouldn’t do anything too drastic for now”.

“OUR DASHIE IS GROWING UP!!!” Pinkie Pie sobbed happily. The other mares just giggled at her. “Why are you laughing? I was being serious!” Pinkie replied.

“We know darling. That was awfully sweet what you said” Rarity replied.

Every pony just looked at each other, waiting for some pony to speak up. They were fully aware of the Ice hockey game taking place next to them. The blue team had won and they cheered loudly. They were carrying a stallion with a purple mane and orange coat. Apparently he had scored the winning goal. That brought the mares out of the subject for a moment, until Twilight thought of something. She managed to clear her throat.

“How about we go ice skating?” she said.

“Good idea Twilight” Fluttershy replied.

“Good thing that I brought extra pairs of ice skating shoes with me!” Pinkie said whilst grabbing the shoes from behind her back. Everyone just stood there staring at Pinkie Pie.

“How did ya do that?” Applejack asked.

“A pinkician never reveals her secrets” Pinkie replied. Applejack wore a look of confusion; she then looked at Rarity who was giggling a lot.

“I get it! Pinkician instead of magician! That was clever, Pinkie Pie” Rarity complimented between giggles. Applejack just rolled her eyes.

“Let’s go find an ice rink where Pinkie Pie isn’t going to topple over again” Fluttershy said.

“Hey! That was one time! I pinkie swear it’s not going to happen again” Pinkie replied. “Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye”.

“She won’t fall over Sugarcube” Applejack said, pushing her forward.

“Yeah, listen to my cousin. She knows me better than you do!” Pinkie replied.

“Yes but you only discovered she was your cousin a couple of months ago” Fluttershy responded.

“That still doesn’t change the fact that she knows me better than you do. Remember, I came into Ponyville when I was just a filly. Then I was looked after by the cakes. They practically adopted me”.

“Yes, I think you have told me that story. I remember I moved to Ponyville when I was 15, I was looking after my grandmother’s cottage according to her will”.

“TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!” Pinkie interrupted.

“Ok Pinkie, I was just saying”.

The mares just giggled and put their ice skating shoes on their hooves. They continued through the hours of the day until it was starting to get Dark.

“Boy that was intense” Twilight spoke.

“I never knew Fluttershy was so good at ice skating” Rarity mentioned. The yellow Pegasus blushed.

“Now Rarity I’m not that great at ice skating. Pinkie Pie is the professional” Fluttershy replied.

“What you say does not change my opinion, darling. I thought you skated brilliantly”.

“Um, thanks”. The mares giggled again. Twilight stopped for a second. She looked over to Rainbow Dash who was busy reading a Daring Do story to Tank.

“What are ya lookin’ at Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Don’t worry about it Applejack. I was just thinking about something”.

“Rainbow Dash?”

“She’ll be fine”.

The five friends headed over to their own houses to rest. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had just finished reading a bedtime story to her tortoise Tank, who had gone into hibernation. Though she herself was not 100 percent ok with the idea that she had to say goodbye to him. But of course, he was a tortoise after all, and tortoises as Fluttershy had told Rainbow Dash had to hibernate.

She was upset by this news and tried to stop winter from coming. That wasn’t successful. Thanks to her, she managed to make winter come sooner. Then when it came to Tank’s hibernation, she had fully accepted this fact. However, deep down, she still wished to have Tank by her side as usual.

“Aw man!” Rainbow complained. “Look Tank, it’s already evening. I’d better get back!” Rainbow packed her Daring Do book back in her bag and looked where Tank had buried himself in the mass of snow. She tried not to cry, she had been doing a lot of that lately. But one singular tear did manage to escape her eye without her noticing.

“I’m gonna miss you Tank. I’ll see you by the next winter wrap up ok”

Rainbow hadn’t even had Tank for a year yet and she was getting all emotional of his absence. After all, he first became her pet after he saved her from being trapped under a boulder. Thinking about these memories of her pet made her heart clench. She knew she wouldn’t see him again until the next winter wrap up.

She slowly walked away from the pile of snow where her pet had buried himself and flew back to her cloud-house. She stopped by the entrance of her cloud-house and cried a little. They weren’t loud sobs. She was trying her best not to be heard, worried that the other residents of Ponyville might be concerned.

“You’ve got to stop crying so much Rainbow Dash” she said to herself whilst wiping tears from her face. “You’re the element of loyalty for crying out loud. You’re not going to forget about him or anything!”

Once she stopped talking to herself, she collected some firewood to start her fireplace. It was a cold night, being the first night of proper winter; she tried her best to keep warm. Having a house made of clouds didn’t help much with the cold breezes that came and went during the night. Her house also didn’t have any windows with glass, so it was easy for the cold breezes to come into the house too. But that didn’t bother Rainbow in the least.

What bothered her was that she felt alone for the first in a long time. She still had her friends, but she felt like something was missing without her pet tortoise around to keep her company.

“Goodnight Tank, sweet dreams” she said after she finally drifted off to sleep in front of her fireplace. Luckily for her, the breezes of snow never disturbed the fire keeping her warm. But she did struggle to sleep. She felt that way for the next few weeks after because she knew there was nothing she could do to bring Tank back early.

At least that’s what she thought…