A Lonely Hearth's Warming Eve
The orange pegasus filly walked down the street filled with families, but she was alone.
Scootaloo trotted down the snowy street on Hearth’s Warming Eve. She could hear merry voices laughing and the jingle of bells. Colored lights glittered from fences and trees everywhere. Far away, the filly could just make out voices accompanied by at least a piano and a cello. Scootaloo had just left a small concert put on by the Pony Tones, Octavia Melody, Beauty Brass, Frederick Horseshoepin, and Parish Nandermane.
Her father was out tonight, at a Hearth’s Warming Eve party, and Scootaloo had been left home alone. She’d wandered out to see if any of her friends were out.
As far as Scootaloo could tell, she hadn’t seen anyone she knew, but she was just out.
The filly looked in one of the shop’s windows as she passed it. Taped to the glass was an advertisement of a colt with fire streaming out from the handles of his scooter. He was flying in the air, and was smiling. The top of it said in red letters, “Fire Streamers! Bring one home to your scooter today!” Scootaloo wished that someone might get it for her for Hearth’s Warming Eve, but knew there wasn’t any chance. It was way too expensive. She felt that familiar old pang of disappointment, but pushed it away and walked on. A chilly wind began to blow, but it was so light that Scootaloo could hardly feel it.
She spotted her classmate Dinky and her mother Ditzy talking together on Scootaloo’s side of the street. The filly walked closer so she could hear their conversation.
“Can we bake those candy cane flavored muffins like we do every year?” Dinky asked.
“Sure, my little muffin,” Ditzy said, “Let’s go get the supplies!” The two crossed the street, bouncing happily. Dinky hopped up on her mother’s back, and the two took off. The cross-eyed mare stumbled a bit, but eventually they got into the air.
The wind picked up, and began to blow harder. The air picked up the snow and began to toss it into the air, smattering Scootaloo with the icy droplets. The filly looked for a building to take shelter in. The nearest building was Fuzzy Jacket’s Winter Coats. Scootaloo ducked inside.
A bell rang when she opened the door, but Fuzzy Jacket didn’t hear her, he was talking to someone. A warm rush of air greeted the filly, and it felt good to her numb hooves. Scootaloo walked to the side of the store, where no one could see her but she could see them. Pulling a coat off the rack, she swung it over her shoulders and lay down on the dirty carpet. She closed her eyes and basked in the warmth of the store.
Sadness washed over her heart as she wished she could be home with a happy family. A deep longing for being normal overcame her, and the feeling was so powerful that the pegasus let out a whimper.
Ding.
Scootaloo lifted her head as she saw her best friend, Sweetie Belle, and her sister, Rarity enter the shop.
“I am so sorry I couldn't make you a coat this winter, Sweetie. You've had that recent growth spurt, and I've been so busy with Hearth's Warming Eve orders I haven't had the time to make you one. I'll make you one in a week, but can we just buy one here to tie you over for this cold spell?” Rarity said, beginning to look at some coats.
“I’m fine either way,” Sweetie said nonchalantly, following the unicorn.
Scootaloo knew that she should probably go out and say hello, but she didn’t feel like it.
I just want to be alone right now.
Scootaloo waited until they had turned their backs, then she slipped out, letting the coat fall to the floor. The wind had died down a little, but was still blowing enough to be uncomfortable. The pegasus filly walked down the street, feeling very bad and not happy at all.
She heard a light swoosh and then a small thump before her. Scootaloo looked up to see a blue mare with a rainbow mane folding her wings in.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said in delight, pushing all of her sadness away.
“Hey, squirt,” Scootaloo’s sister greeted her. “I saw you feeling kind of down, and I thought I should give you my present now. Better sooner than later, right?”
“You got me a present?”
“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash asked uncertainly as the filly hugged her neck in a giant bear hug.
“Oh, thank you!” Scootaloo said as happiness filled her heart and washed out all of the self-pity.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down,” Rainbow said while pulling the joyous child off of her. “I mean, you don’t even know what it is yet. I could be giving you dirt.”
“You might as well open it now and find out,” The mare said while pulling out the small gift from a small satchel slung around her neck that Scootaloo hadn’t noticed until just now.
Rainbow Dash set the small, gift wrapped present on the snow. The long rectangle box lay on the ground in a moment of peace before Scootaloo snatched it and began to unwrap it with her mouth. The paper tasted unfamiliar, and the filly spat out the pieces to reveal a white box with the words, “Fire Streamers” printed on the top in big red letters.
“Oh my gosh!” Scootaloo cried out in joy. “This is exactly what I wanted!” She leaped up and hugged the pegasus around the neck. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Why is she so happy? the cyan mare thought. It's just a cheap little toy.
For a moment Rainbow stared at the filly in confusion. She hadn’t known someone could ever get so excited about a present. “Uh…you’re welcome,” Rainbow Dash said after a good long pause. The mare would expect this from Scootaloo back when the filly viewed Rainbow as a idol, but they had moved on! They were sisters!
An awkward silence followed.
“I…I have to go help clear some clouds. See you later, Scoots,” the pegasus said and lifted into the air. As Rainbow Dash flew away, a part of her wanted to stay, but the awkwardness was so great that she didn’t turn back. Still, she was unhappy as she flew into the winter sky.
Scootaloo, on the ground, watched the mare fly away. She’d been hoping she’d stay and help her attach it to her scooter. The filly glanced at the box. She’d dropped it when she’d hugged Rainbow Dash, and some snow from her leap had landed on it. Scootaloo quickly brushed it off to reveal the words, “Adult Supervision Required for Attachment” in the top right corner.
Yes! Now Rainbow will have to stay!
“Rainbow Dash!” She called out in a loud voice. Rainbow Dash stopped her ascent and turned around, hovering in the air and slightly bobbing up and down from the movement of her blue wings. She looked torn by indecision. Scootaloo ignored the pained look on her face and went ahead with her plan.
“It says Adult Supervision Required! Will you help me attach it?” Scootaloo said.
Rainbow smiled and lighted down on the pure white snow, scuffed up from the filly’s two ferocious hugs.
“’Kay, I’ll help you. What do we need to do?” Rainbow asked.
“Um…we need to…,” Scootaloo hurriedly opened the box. There lay the fire streamers. They were clear sheets with a picture of fire printed on them. They weren’t exactly what Scootaloo thought they were, but they were still pretty awesome. She glanced around for the instructions and spotted them lying under the fire streamers. She yanked it out below the streamers and unfolded the paper. Scootaloo found the title and scanned the first line.
“We need to…peel off the paper protecting the sticky patches on the back of each of the fire streamers,” Scootaloo read from the instructions.
Rainbow grabbed the fire streamers. Holding the streamers in her hooves, she peeled off the paper with her teeth.
“Wrap streamers around the ends of the scooter handlebars.” Scootaloo read aloud the next step. “Oh, wait! I need my scooter!” The filly realized suddenly, jerking her head up.
“It’ll take me like, two minutes,” She said to Rainbow and dashed off, kicking up snow as she sprinted.
Rainbow taped the streamers to her wings for now so that she could walk around comfortably. They rippled behind her as she walked, and the mare wondered what they might look like if she were flying.
With a strong push of her legs and some powerful flaps of her wings she flew around in the air. The fake fire streamed behind her, and if you focused hard enough it did really look like fire. This was a cool present for Scootaloo.
As she saw Scootaloo’s orange figure whizzing down the icy street on her scooter, Rainbow Dash landed on the ground. The pegasus would be slightly embarrassed if Scootaloo found her playing with the present she had bought for her little sister. The mare waited patiently until the filly screeched to halt beside her.
Scootaloo panted. She’d run all the way home, and her back left leg and wings were aching from pushing her the whole way. She slowly got off her scooter and stood to the side, still panting.
“Good time, kid,” Rainbow Dash said to Scootaloo. Scootaloo’s eyes lit up, and she grinned so hard her cheeks burned.
Rainbow Dash moved to the scooter. Pulling one streamer off her wing with her mouth guided by her hoof, she wrapped the streamer around the end of the handlebars. She stuck the sticky end to the other side, making a tight circle. Stamping it down with her hoof to move sure it stayed secure, Rainbow moved onto the next handlebar.
Scootaloo stood off to the side while the mare repeated the process. She didn’t offer any help, because the instructions had read that adults should do the making. The filly felt a little guilty that she wasn’t helping, but she shrugged it off. She then began to wonder why adult supervision was even required. Scootaloo could have done this perfectly fine by herself. The orange filly shrugged mentally.
Stupid safety laws. Probably some idiot got it stuck on his tongue and died or something. Anyways, at least it gives me a good excuse to stay with Rainbow.
Dash finished and stood off to the side. “Okay, Scoot. Show me what you’ve got.”
Scootaloo felt excitement course through her, but it faded and was replaced by a feeling of nervousness as she walked up to the streamer-equipped scooter.
Grabbing onto the handlebars, Scootaloo rolled forward with a teeny flap of her wings and stopped.
“Oh, come on! You gotta have better tricks than that!” Rainbow Dash called out from behind her. Scootaloo blushed in embarrassment. She had meant to push stronger than that, but fear had kept her from speeding away.
The filly gave herself a little pep-talk in her mind.
Scootaloo, you can do this. It’s not that hard. Just do a few little tricks for her and then I’m done. Nothing to worry about. And, even if I do fail, she’ll still like me.
Probably.
With her fear aside Scootaloo gave a much more powerful flap with her wings and sped off. Her wings buzzed faster and faster, the muscles warming up. Clutching the handlebars, she veered away from a lamp post just in time. She allowed herself to do a few laps before beginning to do tricks.
She sped up once again, a quick glance at her handlebars showed that the streamers really did look like fire when you were going fast enough.
Scootaloo turned towards Rainbow Dash, heading straight towards her. Rainbow couldn't help but flinch right when they were about to collide. With a quick turn of the handlebars, she quickly turned a tight circle around Rainbow Dash, not even touching her once.
Speeding away, Scootaloo spotted a board propped up by a box a few yards away. She smiled, a spark of determination igniting, and, with a few pushes of her leg to gain some extra momentum, went towards it.
Hitting the ramp with a jolt, her impressive speed kept her going and off the ramp. Scootaloo looked down and saw that she was airborne. Glancing at Rainbow Dash, she saw that the mare had a wide smile on her face and was watching the filly attentively.
Scootaloo whooped in joy and raised her front hoof in the air, fire streamers flaming behind her. She felt bliss, sailing through the air with her sister watching her, a wonderful gift, and a not at all lonely Hearth’s Warming Eve.
Author's Note
Hey, if you want to enjoy another story with Scootaloo make sure to check out Scootaloo's Flight by Alai20. It's a wonderful adventure story!
Special thanks to:
R.W. for the Christmas Playlist.
Computer glitches for helping me think of creative and out-of-the-box ideas.
