The Heart's Shell

About 23 days past since Rainbow Dash said goodbye to her tortoise. It was already Hearth’s Warming Eve. The snow was falling and every pony was out buying last minute gifts for their friends and family. Fluttershy was busy in her cottage setting up for Hearth’s Warming, collecting appropriate plants to represent mistletoe. She was busy singing to herself until she heard a knocking at the door.

“Hello?” Fluttershy timidly answered the door.

“Yay you’re home! You’re not doing anything urgent are you?” an excited Pinkie Pie asked.

“Well, no. Just decorating my house for Hearth’s Warming”

“Great! Because we have a big favor to ask of you”

“We?” Fluttershy asked.

“Me and Pinkie Pie” Applejack replied as she came into vision.

“What have you come to tell me?” Fluttershy asked.

“Pinkie Pie and I have plans for Hearth’s Warming”

“Very exciting plans for Hearth’s Warming too!” Pinkie Pie yelled, jumping up and down in excitement.

“Is Applejack helping you to prepare for the party tonight?” Fluttershy asked.

“Um about that…” Applejack started.

“Me and Applejack are heading over to the rock farm for Hearth’s Warming. So that my family can meet Applejack’s family, y’know since we’re supposedly cousins and all” Pinkie Pie replied.

Fluttershy stood there stunned.

“Wait, if both of you are going to the rock farm this Hearth’s Warming, then who is going to hold the Hearth’s Warming party?” Fluttershy asked.

“We thought you might” Applejack replied, walking towards Fluttershy and putting her hoof on her shoulder.

“w-what? Me?” Fluttershy asked in shock moving backwards into her cottage. “Oh no-no-no-no-no. Why me? Of all of the ponies in Ponyville, why am I the one to host this year’s Hearth’s Warming party?” Fluttershy was breathing frantically. The other two mares just shrugged.

“Because, silly, we picked you fair and square by having all of the ponies names in Ponyville and drawing out one. It just so happened that you were the lucky pony to be replacing your aunty Pinkie Pie in hosting this year’s Hearth’s warming party!” Pinkie pie replied, having her arm across Fluttershy with a wide grin on her face. However Fluttershy was not amused by Pinkie’s hyperactive mood.

“First of all, I am a year older than you Pinkie Pie. I think I had mentioned that a couple of times” Fluttershy removed Pinkie’s arm from her back “And secondly, I have no idea how to plan a party”

“Don’t worry about it sugarcube” Applejack replied “We figured that since you will be hosting the party, you can do it ‘Fluttershy Style’”

“Fluttershy style?”

“Yeah, like, um. Something to do with animals!” Pinkie Pie suggested bouncing up and down.

“Animals?” Fluttershy asked again.

“Animals, or music. Somethin’ that interests ya at least” Applejack responded. Fluttershy’s eyes widened.

“I’ve got it! I know exactly what to do for this year’s Hearth’s Warming party!” Fluttershy responded. “I will have a critter party!”

“That’s a mighty fine idea there!” Applejack replied “We were goin’ to give our critters to you anyway when we left Ponyville”

The two mares gave Winona and Gummy to Fluttershy.

“I’ll be happy to look after them while you’re away” she said.

Suddenly, the bell chimed noon on the clock nearby.

“Guess we’d better be heading off soon, after we say goodbye to Rarity and Twilight of course” Applejack said.

“Wait, before you go, what time does the Hearth’s Warming party start?” Fluttershy asked.

“I usually start the party at 7:00pm. But since this is your party, you can make it any time you like” Pinkie Pie replied.

“No, 7:00pm is fine” Fluttershy reassured.

After Fluttershy bid her friends goodbye, she went on to writing invitations for Rarity, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Her first stop was at Rarity’s Boutique where she was busy making winter clothes. Ever since Rainbow Dash gave winter early, she had to rush through her winter line. Her boutique was decorated with various fabrics hanging across the curtains and windows.

Fluttershy walked towards Rarity’s Boutique with a basket of invites on her head. ‘I might as well do one think the Pinkie Pie way’ she thought. She timidly knocked on her door and the white unicorn answered it.

“Oh, hello Fluttershy, darling” Rarity welcomed in a gleeful manner. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, as you know, Pinkie Pie and Applejack are heading off this Hearth’s Warming. So they have asked me to host it instead” Fluttershy replied.

Rarity used her magic to pick up the invite that said Rarity and began reading.

Dear Rarity:

You are invited to this year’s Hearth’s Warming party held at Fluttershy’s cottage. There will be lots of things to do there like singing and games. It starts at 7 o’Clock pm.

PS. This is an animal party so you are also welcome to bring your cat with you.

See you there!

Fluttershy

“An animal party; that sounds absolutely wonderful” Rarity mentioned after reading the invite “Glad to hear that they are asking you to do it your way”

“No problem”

“I will see you there at 7 o’clock”

“Happy to be of service” Fluttershy turned to leave until Rarity interrupted.

“Who else is coming to the party?”

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash of course”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive”

Fluttershy just happily skipped to her next destination, Twilight’s castle. Twilight gleefully answered the door, her castle beaming with Hearth’s Warming decorations like wreathes, streamers and holly.

“Hi Fluttershy! What’s with that basket on your head?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy looked up at the basket and giggled.

“Didn’t Applejack and Pinkie Pie tell you I’d be hosting the Hearth’s Warming party?”

“Actually they didn’t. They just said goodbye to me and that’s it”

“Oh, well here is the invite!” Fluttershy responded as she handed the invite to Twilight. She carefully read through it.

“I would love to come! I would never miss a Hearth’s Warming party. Even though this would only be the second one in Ponyville I’ve attended” Twilight replied.

“Can’t wait, see you there!” Fluttershy trotted off again. Twilight noticed that there was one more invite in her basket.

“Fluttershy, are you going to invite Rarity now?”

“No, I’ve already done that. I’m going to invite Rainbow Dash” Twilight’s eyes widened.

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked.

“Rainbow wouldn’t miss it for the world”

“Ok then”. Fluttershy continued on her trek to find the last pony on her invite list. Twilight frowned and closed the door behind her. Spike rushed over to her. He had heard the whole conversation.

“Are we going to the Hearth’s Warming party?” Spike asked.

“We are, I’m just a bit worried about Fluttershy’s optimism”

“Why are you worried about that?”

“She told me she is inviting Rainbow Dash to the party. That’s why I’m worried. She might say no. Rainbow hasn’t shown up for weeks and she said it was an animal party”

“And?”

“Tank” Twilight whispered.

“Oh, right”

Twilight just looked at Fluttershy through one of her windows. I was fogged up so she wiped it a bit to get a better view.

“Good luck to Fluttershy if she does succeed in inviting Rainbow, but I really doubt it”

The clock read 12:30 pm. Rainbow Dash was busy napping in her bed, nice and warm, away from the cold snow outside. She suddenly woke up because of an alarm she set. She yawned and climbed out of her bed. Rainbow Dash checked the calendar to see that it read the 24th of December. Her eyes widened in shock.

“It’s Hearth’s Warming Eve!” she gasped. She frantically was flying all around her room, panicking “And I haven’t bothered to get any of my friends presents!” She put on her winter clothes and headed outside of her house. This was the first time she had gone out in quite some time and she needed the exercise.

She searched all around Ponyville to search for random gifts for all of her friends. But luckily, she found a Hearth’s Warming store that had just about anything.

“OK, I’ll get this for Twilight, this for Applejack, this for Pinkie Pie, this for Rarity and this for Fluttershy”

“Good morning Rainbow Dash” a quiet timid voice startled Rainbow. It was her friend Fluttershy.

“Jeez, flutters! Can’t you see I’m busy getting all of my friends their presents!?” Rainbow yelled whilst stuffing gifts into her bag hurriedly.

“I’m sorry Rainbow. I just came to ask you something” Fluttershy replied. “You see, I’m having a Hearth’s Warming Eve party at my cottage. It’s with me and my animal friends. I’ve asked Twilight and Rarity to come and bring their pets and they happily obliged. Pinkie and Applejack though are having Hearth’s Warming at the rock farm so I’m looking after Winona and Gummy whilst they’re gone.”

“An animal party huh?” Rainbow looked deeply intrigued and concerned.

“You are invited too. You can bring Tank along with you” Fluttershy said with glee.

Rainbow’s eyes widened when she heard that word “Tank”. She quivered and tears welled up in her eyes yet again. It took Fluttershy a second to figure out she said something wrong.

“Oh goodness. Tank! I completely forgot. He’s still hibernating” Fluttershy gasped in shock. Rainbow just looked mad at her filly friend. Fluttershy backed up a little.

“How could you forget such a thing!!?” Rainbow shouted at Fluttershy. “You were the one who told me he was going to hibernate in the first place! Of all the ponies in Ponyville, you forget that Tank isn’t here right now!!?”

The rest of the town went silent as they stared at Rainbow and Fluttershy. But the two mares didn’t seem to care that there was silence around them. It seemed like a battle between two friends was happening. But they were also worried because it was Hearth’s Warming eve, and fighting had brought the windigos a thousand years before.

“I didn’t mean to make you mad, Rainbow” Fluttershy apologised. “I just thought...”

“Just leave me alone!!” Rainbow yelled as she flew back up to her house in tears. Fluttershy just stood there. She didn’t do anything. She just sighed and walked slowly back to her cottage. Thinking about whatever she said to Rainbow Dash made her get upset. She tried to get the images from a few minutes ago out of her head.

Even though she expected Rainbow to be mindful of Tank, she didn’t expect her to still hang on to the past, like it was only yesterday she said those harsh words to her: “your winter is going to be pet less”. Keeping in mind it was also Hearth’s Warming Eve, what if Rainbow had prepared a present for Tank too? Fluttershy thought. It then hurt inside her as well to think about it and she quickly resorted back to her own cottage in guilt.

“How could I be so stupid?” Fluttershy argued to herself whilst running. “I’m such a terrible friend!” Her eyes were watering as those words came out of her mouth, or rather, she was crying now. Fluttershy can be sensitive about her friends, even when it did come to being stern with Rainbow, she still felt the tiniest percentage of guilt of hurting her but she didn’t even care at the time.

Fluttershy the animal carer had been through this pain before. She lost animals all the time just like that, though they were in far worse circumstances than Tank was. She knew what it was like to have a pet disappear and never see it again. She hurried back and locked herself in her cottage as her animals comforted her. She finally let her tears run loose in her light pink mane.

“Rainbow is right, though” Fluttershy sighed “How could I forget Tank was hibernating. Poor Rainbow has already gone through so much already in the past month, I feel terrible!” One of the squirrels handed her an acorn to cheer her up.

“Thank you” Fluttershy sniffed. “Pity Rainbow doesn’t have Tank to listen to her problems and worries like I have you. It really does help” Fluttershy wiped the rest of her tears away and started to prepare for the party. She knew it wasn’t for another seven hours but she still wanted to be prepared just in case Twilight and Rarity just so happened to arrive earlier.

Meanwhile, Rainbow was still sulking in anger about what Fluttershy said. She didn’t have any pony to talk to except her fire place. She had just finished wrapping up her presents to give to her friends, but she wondered if she was actually going to give them their gifts.

She stared at the fire place. She noticed how the flames were dancing. She saw her and Fluttershy dancing in the flames too. It was Fluttershy’s fifteenth birthday; Rainbow Dash was still thirteen years old.

She mentioned to Rainbow that she was already planning to move to Ponyville since she was already a full grown mare now and had found comfort on the ground. She was also taking over from one of her relatives according to a will. Rainbow was still smaller than Fluttershy but she couldn’t wait to find a home of her own when she got older. Six years later, Rainbow felt her friendship with Fluttershy had ended.

“What a way to spend Hearth’s Warming Eve, huh. Staying in my cloud house again talking to myself”. She began to get more and more concerned both for herself and Fluttershy. Herself because she felt she had no pony to talk to but herself and Fluttershy because she said those things to her.

“Should I still take the presents down to them, what if Fluttershy never forgives me?” Rainbow decided she didn’t want to go. Not just because of what she said to Fluttershy, but because it might be a bit awkward if she went without Tank.

Rainbow just lied there in front of her fire place, slowly counting the hours until she would change her mind. But that never seemed to happen. Eventually, she closed her eyes. With nothing to do but lie there, Rainbow felt she just gave up right in front of her fire place.

“I wish there was a way to spend Hearth’s Warming with Tank, and do all the fun I wanted with him” she said as she yawned and finally drifted off to sleep.

Little did she know that the Fire place she was sleeping in front of was acting strangely. A Black shadowy figure came out of it and transported itself under Rainbow’s empty tree. The shadow transformed into a little gift. But Rainbow was still oblivious to what was going on in front of her that this shadowy figure was the answer to her long needed wish...