It was a week before Hearth’s Warming and not a single pony in Ponyville had been spared of the holiday spirit. The weather team made sure it snowed in time for winter as they always did and thanks to them, Ponyville was covered in a beautiful blanket of snow just as every other corner of Equestria was. Every house was covered in decorations, colorful lights and had snowponies around them. It was an absolutely beautiful sight to behold and the fact that it was nearing dusk made it even better as each house’s lights were on, illuminating the white streets with their warm glow. Everywhere you looked whether it was out on the streets or in the warmth of their homes, you’d find ponies laughing, cuddling and enjoying themselves to the fullest. It was a season of joy and giving when not a pony could be found unhappy.

Just like everypony else, on the ground floor of the Golden Oaks library, sat eleven figures. Ten of pony origin and one dragon. Occasional laughter could be heard from the figures in the library on account of them sharing silly stories of some sort with each other. Twilight had hoped to go someplace nice this winter with all her friends but in the end decided not to and instead decided to have a sleepover at the library. All her friends were present, Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack plus three little fillies famous for wreaking havoc across town in search of their special talents and one colt who occasionally joined them Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Rumble. Thunderlane had entrusted Rumble into the care of Rarity on account of having to go out of town and having no other pony that was free to take care of his brother. Rarity agreed to do so, she always did like helping a friend whenever possible and Rumble was good friends with Sweetie Belle so it worked out for everypony.

All of them had scarves or sweaters, personally made for each of them by Rarity and were listening to Twilight tell the story of just how Hearth’s Warming got it’s name by request of the fillies and colt present. Of how the three tribes’ leaders had almost perished due to selfishness and hatred, but thanks to Clover the Clever, Private Pansy and Smart Cookie, with the kindness and love that warmed their hearts had saved themselves and their leaders from what would have been a very icy tomb. There is a reason why ‘tis a season to be jolly and the season of giving, after all. By the time the story was done, Spike had made them all some hot chocolate with marshmallows to further warm them all up as they sat in the warmth of the fire.

“Woah! That’s really cool... A little scary, but cool!” Rumble said after Twilight had finished.

“Aw, ya nothin’ to worry ‘bout, sugarcube! Ponies stopped actin’ like that a long time ago, exactly why we’re still here.” Applejack responded to the little colt, sipping at her hot chocolate.

“Alright, kids! Time to write your letters!” Said Pinkie as she pulled out some paper and pencils from... somewhere.

“Letters? Letter to whom?” Rumble inquired, filled with curiosity.

“Ooh! My turn!” Rarity spoke, gathering the attention of everypony and [especially] the dragon in the room. “You see, dear, on account of everypony being saved thanks to Clover, Smart Cookie and Private Pansy, they were admired and received gratitude from everypony, for without them, the tribes wouldn’t have met the prettiest of ends.” She paused to take a sip of her hot chocolate before continuing, “After they had passed, ponies wanted to find a way to keep their memory alive and so, they decided that they’d have a set day to honor their memory and their story became one of the many things passed on from generation to generation. Oddly enough, ponies started noticing rather odd occurrences around Hearth’s Warming, things like ponies receiving things they’ve desired and others having rather.. awful luck.”

“Sounds like weird coincidences to me..” asked Rumble.

“Oh they most definitely considered that, but after it continuously happening, ponies started to consider if there was some higher power at work. Even when they considered the ponies who got their wishes and those who had their luck suddenly take a turn for the worse, they seemed to have been rewarded -or punished- depending on how they acted.” She stopped and then turned to Twilight, “Darling, would you be a dear and carry on for me? I’m afraid I have to visit the filly’s room.” Rarity then got up and made her way upstairs.

“Ooh, gladly!” Twilight said excitedly, “Now, where did we stop.. Ah! Now, as you may be thinking, not all of the ponies were affected by how they acted, but a significant number of them were. After a while, ponies began to seriously think that Clover, Smart Cookie and Private Pansy were really watching over all of them. I know this sounds crazy and ponies then thought so too, but eventually they all gave in and thus, the Legend of the Hearth’s Warming Spirits was born! Though, some ponies still remained sceptical...”

“Ooh, what about you? Do you believe in it?” Sweetie Belle piped up and the other three foals present looked toward Twilight, all seemingly interested in her personal opinion.

“Well, when my parents first told me the story, I thought it was some silly little bed-time story they made up to get me to bed. Now, after all the things I’ve experienced? I would say I believe in it a little more. After all, everypony thought Nightmare Moon was just an old pony’s tale but look where that got us, so my comment is that anything is possible and the Spirits may just be watching over us right now.”

“What about you, Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo turned to Rainbow, curious what her idol thought of all this.

“Eh, gotta say i’m with Twilight on this one, kid. After all, she does make a fair point.” All other ponies [and dragon] present nodded in agreement.

“Um, now that we’ve got opinions down, we still haven’t gotten to why we’re sending letters to dead ponies...” Rumble looked back to Twilight in hopes she’d pick up where she left off.

“Oh, right! Well, one year, a few ponies got together and decided to do something crazy. They thought that if the Spirits were watching over them, they’d send letters of what they truly wanted for Hearth’s Warming and hopefully they would get their wishes granted. Now, while a few ponies did go along with it, some ponies just decided that they had to draw the crazy line somewhere, after all, spirits can’t read letters, right?

“Now, I don’t know if it really worked or not, because there’s no record of any of it in my books about Equestrian traditions. But it’s believed that year after year, more ponies started taking part in this activity because they saw no harm in it and it seemed crazy, but fun. It was mostly the children who did so, though. They really did believe it worked and eventually, it spread enough to actually become a yearly tradition almost every family did during Hearth’s Warming! A little fun activity for the children then, and still is!”

With the short story/lesson over, Pinkie once again got out the paper and writing equipment and passed it around. Even the adults indulged in writing letters at the request of the foals and soon they had all written out their letters, sealed them and placed them in the box Twilight had brought out. Once they were done, the children were sent to bed and everypony else had once again gathered by the fireplace. The foals never knew it, but those letters may have once been written to actually send who-knows-where, but the only reason ponies still do it is so that they could find out what to get their little fillies and colts to make them happy. It always worked and the foals always believed the Spirits of Hearth’s Warming were actually the ones getting them their presents.

Twilight began reading the letters to her friends and they were all things you would expect from foals, one of the things among what was wished for, was a Cutie Mark, noted down by Apple Bloom. This got a chuckle out of the ponies gathered, but one letter got Twilight’s full attention. Scootaloo’s. When she picked it up to read, she expected something similar to the others but it was one she wasn’t expecting at all. Instead of reading it out aloud, she decided to read it silently, then pass it on for everypony else to read to themselves.

It read:

Dear Spirits of Hearth’s Warming,

I know I haven’t been the easiest of fillies to deal with lately because of how much trouble I cause, but I’ve tried really, really hard to be good! For this Hearth’s Warming, I don’t want a new scooter and I don’t care if I don’t get my cutie mark, either. All I want this Hearth’s Warming, is... well, to see my family again! I know there’s a chance that it can’t happen, but I swear I’ll be extra good if you’re able to pull this off! I’ll even do all my schoolwork and everything! Pleeeaaase?

- Scootaloo

After all of them had read the letter, silenced reigned. Nopony knew exactly what to say or do. After a while, Rarity inquired as to whether it would actually be possible to track down Scootaloo’s parents but was disappointed to find out that Rainbow and Twilight had already tried and found out that Scootaloo’s parents had fallen in an unfortunate weather incident many years ago, less than a year of Scootaloo being born. She had an aunt in Canterlot, but apparently she had refused to take care of Scootaloo. When Rainbow had found this out for the first time.... Well, let’s just say that it’s a good thing that Twilight personally knew the Princess and a few of the guards in Canterlot.

They all felt for Scootaloo, they knew this was one thing she wanted more than anything, Cutie Mark included. The problem was, none of them could think of something they could do to help her. Rainbow, though had a plan. It was beyond crazy, highly risky and there was almost certainly the chance that it would turn out very, very badly. But then again, this was Rainbow Dash. The mare who would take life-threatening risks just because she was bored, so this was gonna be easy.

She told the others her plan, at first they didn’t agree but eventually gave in after Rainbow persuading them to the best of her abilities. After all, it was a plan. And it was better than anything else they had at the moment... Which quite frankly, was nothing.

Three Days Later...

The Mane Six -minus Pinkie who was tending to customers- sat at their usual table in Sugarcube Corner and were talking amongst themselves. They were going over Rainbow’s plan of what they were going to do regarding Scootaloo, and while they still weren’t all too inclined about it, Rainbow had convinced them for the most part to give it a shot.

“So you all know what you have to do, right?” Everypony present nodded in affirmation, “Good, ‘cause this has to work, no matter what. We can’t let her down, guys, we just can’t.”

“Rainbow, calm down,” Twilight put a hoof on Dash’s shoulder, “We know this is important to the both of you, so we’re all going to try our best to see this through.”

The others all nodded in agreement and Rainbow sighed, “I know..”

“Once Big Mac gets here I’ll cast the spell and Pinkie will have everything set up by the time you get back. I’ll be upstairs in Pinkie’s room with Spike there to make sure there will be no disturbances. A spell like this will require concentration and i’ll be pretty exhausted for a while after.” Twilight said, taking out a parchment and going over the spell.

“Yeah, I’ll go get her now.” Rainbow nodded, put on the biggest smile she could muster up and flew out of Sugarcube Corner in search of the little orange filly.
Even though she knew there wasn’t anything that could be changed, Rainbow went over her plan over and over again while searching for Scootaloo. Her plan was simple..ish, she looked for Scootaloo’s real parents, she ended up with nothing. She looked for Scootaloo’s relatives, all she got was a pony that didn’t deserve getting off with only bruises and minor cut... or two. So she decided that what she thought of was the next best thing. Even though it wasn’t the best plan, once she set her mind on something, making her go back on what she wanted was as easy as moving a mountain with your bare hooves, which is why her friends had decided to humor her and do their part as best they could. She had asked Twilight if she could perform a spell that made ponies look and sound completely different and was overjoyed at getting that answer she wanted.

Twilight was to cast the spell on Big Mac and Rarity, making them resemble Scootaloo’s actual parents as close as she could and everypony else just had to pretend the knew nothing. The fact that they couldn’t keep it up forever was something that was pointed out to Rainbow but she said that they’d “cross that bridge when they got to it”. There was a part of her that nagged at her to stop before she went on further, but she chose to ignore that part of her. Further thoughts about this topic were pushed out of her mind when she spotted Scootaloo talking to her fellow Crusaders just beside one of the stalls in the Markets.

She landed next to the trio, “Hey, guys!”

“Oh, hey Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo turned to her with a grin.

“Howdy, Rainbow Dash!” Said Applebloom. Sweetie Belle just waved and smiled as best she could with a cookie stuffed in her mouth.

“So, Scootaloo, wanna come with me to Sugarcube Corner for a bit?”

“Uh, I guess. We weren’t really planning on doing anything today, anyways.” The other fillies nodded in agreement. “Why?”

“Great! I just have a little... surprise waiting for you at the Corner, all I needed to do was come get you, so hop on!” She lowered herself to allow the filly to climb up onto her back then motioned for the other two to do the same. “Alright girls, hold on!”

She took off at a fairly normal pace, remembering that going her normal speed when she had passengers doesn’t really work out well. Now that her mind wasn’t distracted on conversation, she expected to hear that part of herself return with it’s opinions of how this wasn’t gonna work out but was surprised to find that no such thing occurred. The flight back didn’t take as long on account of her not having to go around searching and the moment she landed, the fillies all jumped off her back and Scootaloo was bouncing around in place, excited for the coming surprise.

After waiting a minute or two for Scootaloo to calm down, Rainbow opened the doors and led the way inside. She spotted Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack in a corner with another stallion and mare who she figured were Mac and Rarity both of whom looked nothing like themselves. Mac was now a brown-coated dark blue-maned stallion with a wrench for a cutie mark and Rarity was a sky-blue yellow maned mare with a bouquet as a cutie mark. As their entrance was noted, all attention was shifted to Rainbow and the fillies as they made their way over and sat with the rest of their friends.

“Sooo.. You mentioned a surprise?” Scootaloo asked, looking to Rainbow.

Dash motioned over to the two ponies sitting with excitement as clear as day on their faces, both being strangers to Scootaloo, signaling them to introduce themselves.

‘Rarity’ cleared her throat, garnering Scootaloo’s attention, then got out of her seat to crouch down to Scootaloo and started with the first thing that came to mind, “Scootaloo, I assume?” She received nothing but a nod in response. Rarity’s grin widened as she looked back to her ‘husband’ momentarily [who had joined her beside Scootaloo] before returning her attention to the filly, “Well, dear, I suppose there’s no other way to say this.. Scootaloo, we’re.. Well, we’re.. your parents..”

She let her gaze linger on the filly as she held on to Mac.

“...What.” Scootaloo’s face was blank. She couldn’t process what she just heard. ‘We’re your parents’, something she hadn’t been expecting to hear.. well, ever.

“N-Now I know this is a lot to take in so just take your time..”

“..What.” Again. She probably wouldn’t have said anything other than that for the next couple of hours if it wasn’t for Rainbow Dash nudging her slightly which brought her out of her reverie. “Y-You’re really..?” She asked, tears starting to form.

“Ee-” Mac caught himself before he completed that, “Er, we sure are, Scootaloo.”

“I’m Morning Dew,” Rarity pointed at herself, then to Macintosh” And this is Quick Fix”

Scootaloo stayed completely still for a minute, and all those who were present expected her to burst out crying but instead, she surprised them all. She tackled the two ponies in front of her in a hug and -catching them both off guard- knocked them to the ground, but they didn’t protest. They just hugged her back.

“I.. I’ve wanted to meet my parents for so long. Finally, I did!” Scootaloo was ecstatic at the news, her fellow crusaders even joined in on the hug after a while, genuinely happy for their friend. She would have stayed hugging her parents for a lot longer if Pinkie hadn’t somehow appeared between them, picked them up in a bear hug, and declared shenanigans before firing her party cannon that covered the entire inside of Sugarcube Corner in streamers. She assured them that it was a private party and that they wouldn’t be disturbed by anypony else, it was just the eleven of them, including Spike and Twilight who would join them soon.

The rest of the evening was spent with Scootaloo and her friends describing their various adventures and other things in her life and her questions for her parents were in no short supply either. No matter, everypony was having a blast.

While the ponies downstairs were getting into the spirit of things, Twilight was fast asleep on Pinkie’s bed. She was a little exhausted after casting the spell and decided to sleep off the fatigue and she could maybe join the others later. Spike, too, took a nap. Though not out of actual tiredness, more out of laziness and the fact that the bed looked so comfortable.

Twilight, in all the time she was studying the spell, she forgot to read the footnote in tiny text that said the spell’s effect would only last for roughly 3-4 hours.

... And It’s already been three hours.

“..And this one time, we even tried to get our cutie marks in hang gliding and it was a pretty cool idea... Except we ended up covered in tree sap..” Scootaloo had been telling her parents the stories of the different ways she’d tried to get her cutie mark along with her friends, which almost always ended in some disaster or another.

“Well, no need to worry sweetie, it took me quite some time to earn my mark as well, in fact, I too, was the last one in my class to get my cutie mark. It’ll come when the time is right.” Rarity bit into a cupcake that she picked off a table containing various treats.

“While I wasn’t the last, I did have to wait a little bit.” Mac didn’t talk much throughout this entire exchange, the spell may have been able to change his appearance, but it had no affect on how he acted.

“Well, I know... It’s just th-” She looked over to Morning Dew only to notice that her coat color was slowly turning white, and her mane was losing its yellow shade as well. “Um, mom? Wh.. What’s happening to you?”

Rarity looked at her hooves and noticed the gradual change in color and upon looking over at Mac, she realized that it was happening to him, too. Slightly panicking, she looked over to Rainbow before answering, “N-Nothing at all, I’m fine!”
Rainbow seemed to notice what was happening and quickly came over to her friends, followed by Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie. By that time, Rarity and Mac had both returned to their true colors, their voices and cutie marks reverting to to their originals.

“R-Rarity? Big Mac? Wh-What’s happening?” Scootaloo looked around, making sure she wasn’t just seeing things and her gaze settled on a very fidgety Rainbow Dash who seemed to look everywhere but at her. “..Rainbow Dash?”

“What just..” The filly turned to Rarity, “I’m dreaming, right? I-I fell asleep while talking to my parents and I’m gonna wake up soon, right?...Right?”

Rarity sighed. She knew this would come eventually, but she had hoped it could be under better circumstances. She gave the filly a sorrowful look and just as she was about to answer, Rainbow cut her off, saying, “Sorry, squirt.. T-This.. It’s no dream. I’m sorry..” She finished lamely.

“No.. You’re.. You’re lying!” Rainbow said nothing at that, still refusing to look the filly in the eye. “Please, please tell me you’re lying!”

“I wish I were.” Scootaloo had teared up by now, but she refused to let herself break down and cry in front of everyone. She pushed her way past Rainbow and ran out of Sugarcube Corner, leaving behind a very depressed scene in Sugarcube Corner. She ran and ran until she was sure nopony was following her, out of instinct she had run toward the clubhouse in Sweet Apple Acres. Once she was inside the clubhouse, she locked herself in, curled up in one of the blankets they had and sobbed into her hooves, hardly even moving.

After Scootaloo ran out, the others were unsure of what they should do exactly. Rainbow wanted to go after her but Fluttershy told her to give Scootaloo some time before going after her.She listened and stayed, no matter how much she wanted to make sure Scootaloo was alright and wouldn’t do something stupid.

Meanwhile, Rarity went upstairs to check on Twilight. Twilight never told them anything about the spell wearing off after some time and she wanted to know if Twilight was alright, she did say the spell would take it’s toll on her.

“Twilight?” She pushed the door to Pinkie’s room open as quietly as she could and called out to her friends again. She got no response and the room was too dark to see anything. She turned to her right and flicked the lights on, and then she saw Twilight and Spike, both lying fast asleep on Pinkie bed. This time, she called out a little louder, but Twilight didn’t seem to budge, so she moved closer and gently tapped her friend on the shoulder, “Twilight?”

“AH!” Twilight bolted upright and frantically looked around her. On noticing there was no immediate danger, she calmed down and noticed her friend beside her.

“Terribly sorry, darling. I didn’t mean to startle you like that.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I tend to be a little jumpy when I wake up, anyways.” That’s when she noticed Rarity was in her natural state rather than the transformed one, “What happened to your.. disguise, I guess?”

“Well, about that... You see, just as we were in the middle of a conversation with Scootaloo things sort of went... downhill. Scootaloo ran away and I came up here to see what happened to the spell.”

Twilight gave a slight gasp at that, “Where did she go? Is she alright?”

Rarity made herself more comfortable before answering, “Well, we don’t know. After she ran out, Fluttershy thought it would be best if we gave her some space before we went searching for her. By now, Rainbow’s probably already searching for her everywhere she knows.”

Twilight nodded at that and levitated the spellbook over to where she was and read the spell over again, only now did she notice that the spell was a temporary one and required to be cast every few hours in order to stay active, otherwise it’s effects would just fade away.

Twilight facehoofed at that, I should have made sure to be extra careful with this before I cast it. Then she noticed a considerable lack of her assistant anywhere and asked, “Wait, where’s Spike?”

Rarity pointed to somewhere behind her and when she looked, she found Spike laying asleep on the other side of the bed, “Huh, how did I not notice him?... And how has he not woken up yet?”

Rarity just shrugged. Apparently, Spike was quite a heavy sleeper.

“Let’s go down and see how things are. Scootaloo must be freezing, I hope Rainbow found her by now.” Twilight rubbed the sleep from her eyes, stretched, then jumped off the bed and proceeded to leave the room followed by Rarity.

Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy and Big Mac had all left in search of Scootaloo. Rainbow and Applejack had both set out to the Acres while Mac and Fluttershy both decided to search anywhere else in town that looked like someplace she might go.

“Scootaloo!” Rainbow called, hovering over some apple trees, as she made her way to the clubhouse. She figured that’s the first place Scootaloo might run to so she set off there while Applejack searched the barn and it’s surrounding areas. Going someplace familiar when you’re scared or confused is something ponies tend to do. She still kept an eye out for any sign of Scootaloo among the trees because there was still the chance that she hadn’t made it to the clubhouse.

Eventually she made her way to the clubhouse and silently glided over and landed right outside the door. Pressing her ear up against the door of the clubhouse, she could make out the faint sobbing from inside. She knocked lightly on the door and called out, “Scootaloo?”

She heard the crying stop and all was silent for a moment. She pushed lightly against the door but found it was locked, “Scootaloo?”

“Go away!”

“Not happening, Scoots. Now would you open this door?... Please?” Rainbow shivered. It was quite cold outside and she needed to get indoors soon or she might freeze on the very spot she was standing.

“You all lied to me! I don’t wanna talk to any one of you! Now go away!”

“Yeah, well the only reason they all went along with it is because I begged them to! Now open up, let me in because it’s freezing out here and I can tell you why!” She yelled back through the door. She wasn’t a very patient pony and the temperature was not helping one bit. To top it all off, she wasn’t the best at things like this.

Silence reigned for a few seconds before she heard hoofsteps, followed by the sound of the door being unlatched. She expected Scootaloo to open the door and yell at her or say something else but on the lack of any such thing, she gave the door a light push and it slowly creaked open. Wasting no time in getting out of the cold, she went inside and closed the door behind her and noticed that Scootaloo was sulking in a corner and so she went and sat down next to her.

Rainbow reached out and placed a hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder only for her to shy away from Rainbow. She sighed, “Look.. I know what we did back there wasn’t exactly.. right. But you don’t have to blame any one of them because it’s all my fault, I begged them to do this one thing for me. They.. They all told me it was a bad idea, messing with you like this but I just had to..”

“Why?” Scootaloo still refused to look at her, seemingly content with keeping her back to her idol. “Why would you...even care?”

“Hey. That hurts. Of course I care! We all do! Why the hay would you think otherwise? I see you, Scootaloo. When you think nopony notices, I’ve seen you look at others and I see how much you wish you could have a mom or dad to run home to, and you wanna know just how I could possibly know that? Experience. I know that look. While I might have had my parents, they weren’t exactly.. around much. Always work work work. I barely got to see them at all.”

She tried putting her hoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder again, and to her relief, Scootaloo didn’t shrug away and simply let her hoof rest there on her shoulder. “Look, squirt. I know you’re hurt. We.. I went too far with that, but all I wanted was for you to be, you know, happy. Even if it was just for a few hours. You were so happy! So I was happy, too! And in all that time, I just forgot how much it would hurt when the whole thing was over.”

Scootaloo finally turned to look at her, eyes red from all the crying. “I read your letter, Scootaloo. It was after I read that, I knew I just had to do something... anything to cheer you up.”

“W-What about my parents? My real parents?”

Well, she knew that question would come up and it was the least she could do to tell her the truth. “Yeeaahh, about that. It’s the whole reason I did all of this in the first place. I had looked for them a while back and well, turns out they um.. passed on in a freak weather accident just a little while after you were born.. And I couldn’t find any relatives anywhere.” She lied. Scootaloo didn’t need to know about the aunt she had.

“So, for what it’s worth, I’m really sorry, Scootaloo. I swear, I’ll do anything to make it up to you. Anything.” She was pleasantly surprised when Scootaloo hugged her, tightly. Not long after she could feel her fur getting wet on her chest.

“Thank you.” Scootaloo said, though it was somewhat muffled. She looked up at Rainbow, “I-I.. I mean, nopony’s ever done something like this for me. Nopony’s even considered what I might have felt for so long.”

They heard the door creaking behind them and thought it was just the wind, “Well, it’s what family is for.” Twilight said from behind them.

Surprised, both of them looked toward the door to see Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy standing just outside the door. “Before you ask, no, we haven’t been here the whole time. Applejack came to us when she noticed your absence and told us where you were going, so we all figured you must have found her and we all just wanted to be here, is all. And to apologize for the parts we played in what I can safely call the worst plan ever.” Twilight giggled.

Soon they were all out of the freezing cold and sat next to Rainbow and Scootaloo, then Twilight continued, “ You know, I’ve read quite a lot of books. Nopony who knows me can deny that, but not once have I ever read that a family must be related by blood. We might not be the parents you want, Scootaloo, but we’re still a family. We may not always get along, but families rarely do.”

“We’re all just happy to help whenever we can,” Fluttershy added.
“Yeah! And anytime some mean ol’ pony sours your mood, just come to us and we’ll make it all a-okay!” Pinkie chimed in.

“Definitely, darling. I honestly don’t know where I’d be without all of you,” Rarity smiled at Scootaloo, “And we’ll always provide support when you need it.”

“Darn right. And we’ll make sure to tell ya when a plan o’ yours is just horrible. From now on, no exceptions.” Applejack chuckled and playfully punched Rainbow on her shoulder.

“Y’know, I always did want a little sister,” Rainbow got up and let Scootaloo rest on her back. “We can still make something of this night. Whaddya say, girls?”

“Ooh, ooh, are we having another party? Oh pleasepleaseplease can we?” Pinkie bounced around with glee.

“Sure, you know we never did get to finish that first party..” Rainbow said as she walked out and got ready to take off.

“Whee, let’s go!” And with that, Pinkie Pie disappeared leaving five unfazed mares and one very confused Scootaloo.

“Oh don’t worry about it, squirt. It’s just Pinkie Pie, you’ll get used to it.” They all laughed at that and began making their way back to Sugarcube Corner.

That night, as Scootaloo lay in her bed in Rainbow’s guestroom, she thought about everything that had happened to her. Pinkie had taken a photo of all of them because she said it was a memory worth preserving and nopony disagreed. Scootaloo finally had everything she had ever wanted. A family. Ponies who she cared about and who cared about her in return. Twilight was certainly right, family doesn’t end with blood. It’s the ponies who are there for you through thick and thin, who’d have your back no matter what. Her pillow was wet from the tears she had shed thinking about everything. But unlike any of the previous nights she’d cried herself to sleep. These were not tears of sadness, or pain. They were tears of joy.

Just before she fell asleep, she looked to the sky and whispered, “Finally... Thank you, Spirits of Hearth’s Warming. Maybe you really do exist...”

Author's Note

I really hope you enjoyed this! It took me a while to finish it on account of there being so many distractions, but go ahead and tell me what you think, even if you hated it xD

And to me I feel like I rushed it in a few parts but that's because I never really focused on them and wanted to move on quickly from said part, so if you noticed any rush work, you have my explanation!