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

"Honestly, though, Fluttershy. How could what happened to Angel be considered not important?" Twilight called from a small. for some reason heavily glued, table in the main room of Fluttershy's cottage. Her friend had gone into the kitchen to make tea for her, as a way of thanks.

A short time ago, on the way to the canary mare's house adjacent the Everfree forest, Twilight had been explained Fluttershy's 'small' dilemma. Apparently, Beakatris, a young cardinal temporarily under her care, had swiped lettuce leaves from Angel's breakfast bowl. Enraged, the small rabbit had begun to chase the bird around the cottage, despite Fluttershy's protest. Eventually the chase had led to go outside, and by the time the pegasus had exited her cottage, somehow Angel had gotten his head stuck inside one of the birdhouses, Beakatris stood atop it's red roof chirping in glee.

It hadn't taken long for Twilight the assistance required. Just a simple spell to expand the wood of the house long enough for the cottontail to remove itself. Twilight, however, was still feeling herself dumbfounded, not only by the situation, but Fluttershy's attempts just a short while ago as 'not important'. She was quite vocal of her concerns as well.

"W-well," the timid mare stammered, walking from the kitchen. Balanced upon her left wing was a tray that held two finely detailed cups for tea. "I just meant that if you were busy, I could've asked somepony else. Like Rarity, or Ms. Heartstrings, maybe?"

"You know as well as I do Rarity is busy with her dresses right now," Twilight stated with an arched eyebrow, "and do you even know where Lyra Heartstrings lives? Or have ever talked to her?" No quicker than did she try to put together a protest than did she slump her head in defeat and admit a negative to both questions.

Twilight softened her glare, "Listen, Fluttershy, I know you mean well, but you know we're here to help you if you need it. You can't just keep thinking of your problems as defferable inconveniences."

"But it wasn't that important, Twilight, really. I'm sure Angel wouldn't have minded waiting for a little while longer. Would you have, Angel?" she asked, though a carrot launched from his small tabled home an a disapproving glare said otherwise. Convinced then he had made his point, the Angel swiped his head back inside his home to settle down for a nap.

Twilight returned her attention to Fluttershy, "Look, you've just need to learn to tell us when something is wrong, OK? We're your friends, we're more than happy to help you. You know that."

"I do," Fluttershy sighed, allowing the tray that rested upon her wing to slide off and sweep gently onto the table. "I just don't asking a lot of you girls. Just yesterday I asked Applejack if she could watch the girls during their sleepover, since she's the onlyone who can seem to handle them. I could barely take when there were just three of them, but now that there are five..."

"Six, actually," Twilight corrected, taking one of the fine china glasses in her magic. "A classmate of theirs had just joined them."

"Really?" she asked with a shudder, one that subsided almost as quickly as it arrived, and turned in to a warm smile, "That's nice. Who is she?"

"He," Twilight stated, "Is Pipsqueak. He's just a colt from Trottingham, is all."

"Oh, I see. Is he nice? To Nyx, I mean?

"I haven't really seen him around her, but from what she says of him he does sound like he is very sweet to her. From what I've seen of him around Ponyville, he's practically a gentlecolt."

"So then,": Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow, "what do you have to worry about? He sounds just fine for Nyx."

"I suppose he... wait, what?" Twilight's eyes went wide, "what do you mean?"

"Your worried about this, Twilight, I can tell. I've seen that look in many of my critter friends' eyes before in situations like this."

"What,  what do you mean situation? I'm not worried, Fluttershy. There's nothing to be worried about"

"If that's so," Fluttershy said calmy glancing up to the teacup in Twilight's aura, "then why are you shaking so much?" It was true. Twilight's cup was shivering in her aura. The tea it held had been creating small waves, some few droplets running out from the edge if the wave was large enough. It hadn't been an entire spilling, though a small brown stain was becoming visible on the carpet where Twilight stood.

Twilight groaned in annoyance, and allowed the cup to fall from her grip, though not from a height that would make it shatter from the fall. "You're right, Fluttershy. This is still bothering me. I don't know why. Applejack is helping me already, so I should be fine, shouldn't I?" She sighed in self-pity, allowing herself a glance at Fluttershy, though not too long a glance. She did not want her friend to see her in this, she believed, idiotic state of being. All she could manage to say was, "I'm sorry Fluttershy. I'm just venting myself onto you, aren't I? This is just stupid, don't worry about it."

A warm, feathery feeling wrapped around her back, and she looked to the source. "Now who's reducing their problems to silly inconveniences?" Fluttershy asked, chuckling. "Don't worry about it Twilight, it's natural that you are worried about your daughter." Twilight allowed the canary mare's hoof to stroke her mane gently. "Just tell me about it OK?"

Well that was officially a bore Rainbow Dash grumbled internally as she flew from the stadium. She had been asked. for some reason, to spy on Nyx and Pinkie Pie. She had agreed to it, a little too quickly, she thought. Thankfully, Applejack had gone and offered her a free mug of Apple Cider for this favor, making any take back all but impossible. The actual doing of the task, however, made a take back suddenly very tempting. The filly was doing nothing!

The entire 'stakeout had been just one big snooze fest of nothing, Rainbow Dash thought. Nyx had been just sitting there quietly, either sipping at her cup, or asking Pinkie Pie a question. Anytime the ponies around her applauded, it took around five seconds for her to start her own weak clapping. The only interesting thing that happened was when she nearly dropped her popcorn due to flinching at an incoming foul ball. A ball that was caught by the brown and white colt that sat next to her.

After she confirmed the two left, the little colt leaving almost exactly when they did, she had begun her trip back to her cloud house which resided above Ponyville. At the speed she had gone, it took but mere minutes to arrive at her puffy home. Flying through an open 'window', she was able to speed into to her room and flop onto her bed. Despite what her friends would somewhat subtly assume, her house was not an unkempt model of Tartarus. The floors were very clear, not a single article of clothing (which she didn't even have enough of to make a significant mess), nor paper lay upon it. The kitchen was also very clear, very few dishes, if any at all, were ever in the sink or laying around. It would be however, fair to say that the cloud home was practically littered with Wonderbolt posters, figurines, and other memorabilia.

After settling into the cumulus mattress, Rainbow Dash began to shift around for a few moments before finding her usual comfort zone. Applejack wasn't expecting her until that afternoon with a 'report' on Nyx, so she decided to take a nap before that time. Still, Rainbow found this rather strange. Wouldn't just be easier to go directly to Twilight with the information? Uh-huh. Sure it would. Ignoring her nagging subconscious, she closed her eyes and freed herself to the light bliss her napping brought.

Pinkie Pie had been right; the game was easy to understand. The ponies would go up to a small square with a large stick called a bat. They would try to hit a ball with it, and then run around in an even larger square unless they got touched by a pony who caught he ball. It was hard to tell when to cheer or not. Sometimes the ponies around her would go berserk with cheer, other times with rage for the exact same thing.

However, other things began to wander through her mind as she gave a farewell to Pipsqueak and Pinkie at the library. Why wasn't anypony using magic? Why did ponies just stop running when a ball was caught in midair? What were those silly pictures on the scoreboard next to team names?

Why hasn't Scootaloo told you what she talked about outside the tree house yet?

"Yeah, why... wait," Nyx paused mid sentence, tensing her muscles as to be able to jump at a moment's notice. She glanced around, "Who's there? Who said that? Show yourself!"

My, my. a voice echoed getting a little feisty, are we? Well, um, showing myself is going to prove a might difficult. After all, I'm up here.

Nyx tilted her head up reflexively, squinting her turquoise eyes to get a better view of the top of the house.

Not the *ceiling!* the voice cried out in annoyance. I'm up *here, in your mind, you know.*

It took a small time for Nyx to fathom the information, and when she did, her eyes went from concentration to full-blown terror. She began to back away, slowly, one hoof at a time, as if she were being stared down by a great shadow. She spoke, or rather stuttered, when her back finally made contact with a bookshelf, "N-no. You can't b-be here. P-princess Luna g-got r-r-rid of you. I got rid of you. There's no way you could still be here."