Nyx's Hearts and Hooves Day: A New Heart's New Joy

“Huh, so that’s what all that hub-bub was about. You guys were so loud I wasn’t able to get back to sleep. It was bad enough when Peewee woke me and Nyx up, but somehow you two were even worse.” Spike stated, helping Twilight to clean up the table from the little mess Nyx left behind after her little ‘Dine-n-Dash’. Somehow during the cleanup and putting away of dishes, Spike convinced her to tell him just what she and Nyx we’re talking about before Nyx’s surprised screams had woken Spike.

“Yeah, sorry about that Spike. I just don’t know what to do about this now.” Twilight said, levitating the pans and plates from the table into the kitchen sink to be washed. “Obviously she gets the concept that you give cards to somepony you care about on Hearts and Hooves Day, and she seriously expected me to have one. What do you think that means?” she asked, a worried look on her face.

“Well, maybe it was because you said everypony liked getting Hearts and Hooves Day cards. For some reason, she probably thought you knew what you were talking about.” Spike said with a smile, trying and failing to keep a snicker from escaping his lips. This was met naturally with a stern, slit eyed glare from Twilight, who quickly ended with a sigh. She and Spike, who was happily bounding over to the stairs, left the kitchen, Twilight’s head sadly to the ground all the way through, even when activating the cloaking spell. Soon, the kitchen appeared to be gone, and instead a wall with an uncanny resemblance to those not covered by bookshelves stood in its place.

“Just what am I gonna do, Spike? Is Nyx starting to expect some sort of father figure in her life?”

“Wait, what?” Spike replied, halfway up the stairwell. “Where in Equestria did you get that idea, Twilight?”

“It’s just what my parenting books say, ‘All colts and fillies will usually have a father in their life, and that will help them later on in adulthood’. Oh, no! What if I misread them! I’ve got to try to remember where I put them!” Twilight exclaimed, her face twisting into panic as she ran around magically pulling off random books from shelves, searching the spines of each ones for titles.

“Whoa, Twilight, you’ve got to calm down! We don’t need another fiasco like last time with you enchanting a doll to solve your problem!” Spike exclaimed. He had just returned from upstairs ,  and was holding a well-designed bouquet of flowers in his claw. “Look, maybe you should just take it easy right now and go decorate the library for Hearts and Hooves Day. That might help you calm down a little.”

Twilight was breathing very heavily, although she did begin to calm down upon Spike’s words. Breathing heavily, she responded, “I guess you’re right. I’m probably getting overworked over nothing, I… uh, Spike what’s with the flowers?” she asked, just now noticing the bouquet.

“THIS, Twilight, is going to be my Hearts and Hooves Day gift to Rarity.” He said, sighing after he spoke his true loves name.

“Oh, brother, Spike.” Twilight said rolling her eyes at this new situation, “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you, but Rarity just isn’t in love with you, she just thinks of you as a friend.”

To this, Spike gave an angry grunt and began to rush out the door, “You and everypony will see, Twilight! After this day, Rarity will be mine!” Naturally of course, Twilight simply rolled her eyes as Spike ran off, no doubt to Carousel Boutique, to see his true love. After he left Twilight decided to take on Spike’s advice and try to calm down. She started by levitating an string with a Purple-Pink paper heart pattern on it, and two pins up to the wall behind the checkout desk, pushing the pins into the wall and little notches in the string to hang the pattern. She then went to put up the ‘Hearts and Hooves Day Origins” book up on display on the window sill for everypony to see. She was very calm while she was putting up her decorations. At least for a little while…

Nyx is eagerly running to school, excited for the Hearts and Hooves Day party going on at school. She had already met up with Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Twist, who were also very eager for their first holiday party with Nyx.

“Oh, Nyx I can’t wait for you to see all the stuff they put up for today!” Apple Bloom squealed.

“Yeah, we get to play ‘Pin the Heart on the Pony’, Bobbing for apples, we swap cards,” Twist said in her nasally voice, letting out a little giggle before continuing, “Saying who our colt-crush is.”

“Bleh!” Nyx and Scootaloo exclaimed in unison, getting a laugh from the other three ponies.

“Man, if falling in love would be anything like what we put Ms. Cheerilee and Big Mac through last year, I hope I never do!” Scootaloo exclaimed, making a fake barf-face. This too got a round of laughs from everypony, Nyx joining in this time.

“Seriously, though Sweetie Belle, why didn’t you read the book a little bit further? I’ve never heard of anypony getting their sister’s boutique destroyed for not reading the next few sentences.” Nyx proclaimed after catching her breath from running and laughing at the same time. “Or being banned from giving their teacher a card because the last one was too big.”

“Ha-ha, yes we get it, Nyx. Sheesh, I hereby regret ever bringing up this story.” Sweetie Belle said slightly annoyed, rolling her eyes. Once again they all started laughing.

“Hey Sweetie Belle, by the way, what did you do with your saddlebag?” Scootaloo questioned. Everpony looked over and noticed she had unlatched one of the bags, carrying only one bag around her neck like a purse.

“Well, I figured I only needed this to carry my Hearts and Hooves Day cards, so I decided it would be too much effort to take both, and unlatched it before I left.” The four ponies began to laugh yet again, this time at Sweetie Belle’s lack of desire to put in effort, until Nyx noticed Spike skipping happily, holding a bouquet of flowers in his claw.

“Hey, Spike!” Nyx yelled in his direction, “Where are you going?” Spike, however, did not reply, most likely too far away to have heard her.

“He’s probably on his way to see my sister” Sweetie Belle giggled “He has a really big crush on her.”

“WAIT, WHAT, WHY? SINCE WHEN!?” Nyx screamed. The conversation she had with Twilight about relationships with friends’ siblings has pretty much left her traumatized.

“When would be ever since he first saw her. As to why, I have no clue.” She said, immediately picking up on her friend’s worries, however, she finished, “But don’t worry. Rarity is about as thick as a rock when it comes to stuff like this. Spike would have to wear a ‘Heart Rarity’ T-shirt for it to cross her mind.”

“But don’t sweat the small stuff now, Nyx. We’re here! It’s time for the Hearts and Hooves Day Party at school!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, pointing her hoof at the pink, heart decorated building that was their school house. Outside stood Ms. Cheerilee letting all the young colts and fillies into the school, into which the quintet ran to as well. Apple Bloom is right, Nyx thought, I’ve got nothing to worry about with Spike. My ‘brother’ couldn’t have any chance with her. I should focus on having the best day at school ever!

This is the worst day at school ever! Nyx thought. Even though she had already given out all her Hearts and Hooves day cards, she had yet to receive any from anypony other than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Diamond Tiara had simply scoffed at Nyx when she tried to give her card, simply letting it drop from her mouth to the floor and then walking away. Silver Spoon had done the same, but at least had the decency to keep the card.

She had not been expecting a card from those two, nor did she want one, but almost none of her class had given her one either. Apparently, many of her classmates’ parents were very afraid of ‘Nightmare Moon’, and discouraged or downright ordered their children from writing a card for her. Due to this a large majority of the class had become afraid of her as well, refusing to play any of the games with her, fearing “she would blast off their heads if she lost”. Ignored and scorned, she simply went to sit down at one of the corners, reading. Despite attempts from the Crusaders to get her to play with them, she said she was fine, insisting they go and play without her. She was almost on the verge of crying, however, for almost nopony had given her a card.

Now there is a special emphasis on almost nopony, for there was one colt in particular who did. Pipsqueak was bounding around, handing out all his Hearts and Hooves cards practically leaving a trail of smiling fainting fillies in his wake, one of which being Sweetie Belle. Whenever he would look back, he put on a confused look, seeing and then assuming that somehow all the fillies were simply tired out from all the partying, and collapsed simultaneously.  After looking around for a few seconds, the young brown and white pony spotted Nyx sitting down reading one of her books at the corner, and rushed over to her, holding out a small card for her with his hoof. Nyx had looked around for a moment, to see if there was somepony else around that she was unaware of. After confirming they were the only two over at this side of the room, Nyx pointed at herself with her hoof with a confused face, body language asking if it was for her.

“Well of course it’s for you!” Pipsqueak answered in his adorable accent, “You’re the only one I haven’t given a card to yet.”

Nyx took up the card in a barley even visible magical aura, and opened it to see that there was inside a poem:

Your beauty like the night on a full moon

A unique filly has entered our class

They say your eyes fill ponies with much gloom

But I say they are your kind soul’s eyeglass.

You are a good pony, all that I know.

A shield, your mark, no greater show of strength.

your wings majestic and your horn aglow.

And even now your knowledge shows great length

You always help us to learn new things.

Despite all those around you think your cruel

Just for having a horn, black coat, and wings

.

Your kindness, beauty, eyes are all a jewel.

So while always we cannot be at school

If we could be friends that would be just cool

Sincerely, Pipsqueak

Nyx suddenly blushed at the kind words said in the poem, and looked at Pipsqueak, obviously looking for an answer to the last line’s question. “Umm, yeah, sure Pipsqueak. We can definitely be friends.” Nyx blushed even more after a sudden hug from the young colt and his jumping up and down saying “Thank You, Thank you, thank you!”

“Ooh, hey, I know. Let’s go play bobbing for apples! Or, do you want to?” Pipsqueak asked his new friend. Nyx nodded in response, laughing with Pipsqueak as they went for the game. Nyx had a sudden light feeling in her chest, one that she could not explain, but she ignored it, because she was now having fun with her newest friend.

After the party at school ended, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were walking home together, only not at such a runny pace this time. Besides Scootaloo, each of them was looking through their Hearts and Hooves Day cards, Nyx however was simply rereading the card Pipsqueak had given her. Apparently, so was Sweetie Belle was at the time , who dashed over to see Nyx’s.

“You got a card from Pipsqueak, Nyx!” she exclaimed, “I thought you said you didn’t get a card from anypony other than us.”

“I didn’t,” Nyx responded, “at least not until a few minutes you guys came to talk to me. Who exactly is Pipsqueak anyway?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right; you don’t really know everypony in our class yet do you?” Apple Bloom asked, to which Nyx shook her head no.

“Well,” Sweetie Belle began, “Pipsqueak is a super-sweet colt from Trottingham. He moved here just a few days before N…”

“NOVEMBER!” Scootaloo bursted out. She had arrived just in time to put her hoof over Sweetie Belle’s mouth to stop what she had thought would be a bad idea to say. After her quick action, however, she received a very confused look from Nyx.

“Yup,” Scootaloo said in order to break the awkward silence, “Just a few days before November two years ago.” After removing her hoof from Sweetie Belle’s mouth, she began to complain, only to be pulled over to the side right away by Scootaloo.

“OK, now Scootaloo, what’s the big idea?” Sweetie whispered demandingly, spitting out dirt that was on Scootaloo’s hoof.

“The idea is; that we can’t be telling Nyx about Nightmare Night!” Scootaloo whispered back.

“Why not?”

“Because, if you tell her that even exists, she’ll probably ask what it is. What are you gonna say to that” Scootaloo asked, then doing a bad mimic of Sweetie Belle’s voice, said, “ ‘oh, it’s only a holiday we do where we bribe and hide from the one you were reincarnated from so she doesn’t go cannibal on us’?”

“Oh, yeah, your right” Sweetie said, now coming to a realization of what almost happened.

“Look, just do something to change the subject and it’ll be fine.”

They then returned to the group, trying to pretend like nothing had happened. Taking Scootaloo’s advice, Sweetie Belle asked a new question to change the subject to something else that was nagging at her, “So, why is it that you care about it? You’ve been reading his card to you practically all day, could it be…” she asked, squealing in joy when she came to a realization, “Could it be, YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH HIM!!!??”

“What?” Nyx exclaimed when she heard this. She looked down at the ground slightly blushing before looking back up and saying “No, of course not. He is just a friend. Albeit he is very sweet. And a little bit cute.” She began to blush, “but I guess in the tiniest, quark –sized way I kinda-sorta, do a little bit like him.”

Sweetie Belle, as well as even Apple Bloom, began to squeal, “So in other words, you do…”

“WHOA, look at the time!” Nyx interrupted, looking at her wrist as if she had a watch on. “I promised Mom I’d be home sooner than normal, so I really gotta go now. Bye!” She rattled off blushing, then running away at a speed that would amaze Rainbow Dash.

Sweetie’s eyes suddenly began to light up, a warning sign for Scootaloo. “Oh, No,” she said, “we are not doing that again. Do you remember what happened last time? Every time I think about it my legs get sore remembering all that work we had to do.”

“Yes I remember what happened,” she answered annoyed, “But this will be different. This time we know that Nyx is in love. It’ll be just fine.”

“Ugh,” Scootaloo grunted, “fine, but no love potions. Deal?”

“Deal”

“OK then,” Apple Bloom interjected, “let’s get out there and make Nyx and Pip the best ever Special Someponies, ever!”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS MATCHMAKERS II, YAY!” The friends screamed. And now they were off to the clubhouse, giggling, to plan their schemes.