The Gift that Changed Everything
The air outside was full of beautiful, white snowflakes, each one gracefully dancing their way down toward the ground until they piled on top of all the others that had already fallen. Each tiny, individual, hoof-crafted beauty came together to form a smooth blanket of white across the ground, whether it be over fields of grass or on the town’s streets. The sight of all the specks of white falling to the ground brought smiles to the faces of many of the ponies in Ponyville, especially the young fillies and colts. Since Hearth’s Warming was only a day away, they had several days off from school, allowing them to have adventures in the snow and spend quality time with their families. For many ponies, it was the most glorious time of the entire year.
Unfortunately, not every young pony had the benefit of a loving family to spend the holidays with. One pony in particular, a pegasus filly with orange fur and a purple mane and tail, was about to experience Hearth’s Warming without her family for the first time in her life.
When she was born, Scootaloo was the happiest and most beautiful little filly her parents had ever laid eyes on. They were elated to have a foal of their very own to take care of and raise into somepony special. Sadly, that dream lasted for only two years, as Scootaloo’s parents had suddenly gone missing while on vacation. At the time, her maternal grandparents were still alive, and it was decided that she would stay with them until her parents were found.
The sorrowful news came only a week later, as a stallion from the police force was given the difficult task of letting Scootaloo’s grandparents know that the bodies of her parents had been found in the forest surrounding the Smokey Mountains. They were on a camping trip in the wooded area, but they had not been informed that a storm had been planned for that location. They didn’t realize the clouds had rolled in until it was too late. They huddled in their small tent, which was in a small clearing, as rain pounded down on their tiny shelter, all while thunder crackled and lightning flashed high above them.
Scootaloo’s parents thought the location of their tent would reduce their chances of getting hit by lightning, but their assumption proved fatal. Against all odds, one powerful bolt of lightning missed all the trees around them and struck the roof of the tent, instantly sending a high voltage charge through the non-rubber material and electrocuting the two ponies inside. They were instantly knocked unconscious, but it wasn’t until six minutes later that both of their hearts had stopped for good and all of their oxygen had fled out of their lungs.
The news was devastating for Scootaloo’s grandparents, as they realized that their daughter and son-in-law would never come back for their little filly. To make matters worse, Scootaloo’s mother was their only child, which only served to deepen their levels of sadness to a state of despair in which neither had felt before.
After they had been informed of the passing of the couple, Scootaloo’s grandparents took custody of her right away, still allowing the filly to be around a pair of somewhat familiar faces. For the next seven years, Scootaloo lived a happy life with her grandparents. They took her on little vacations here and there, they helped her with her schoolwork, but most of all, they kept a roof over the filly’s head, something that her parents could no longer do. Scootaloo had no distinct memories of her parents, but she had noticed some subtle differences as she grew older, leaving her with many questions that she hoped would one day be answered.
All was going seemingly well for Scootaloo until the beginning of this year, when her grandfather fell ill and died suddenly of a heart attack. This was yet another devastating blow for young Scootaloo, and since neither of her parents had had any siblings growing up, she knew that things were going to get unimaginably bad once her grandmother passed away.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for Scootaloo, her worst fear had been realized only two months later, when her grandmother passed away in her sleep only a week after being diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. At that moment, for the first time that she could remember, Scootaloo felt alone. In an instant, she had nothing left – nothing but her personal belongings. She had no idea what the future held for her at that point. She was alone, afraid, and unsure of what to do. The day her grandmother died was going to be a day Scootaloo would remember for the rest of her life.
Today, Scootaloo sat on her bed in Ponyville’s orphanage, looking out the window at the falling snowflakes, some of which twinkled as the light from various street lamps reflected off of them. Those little bits of light meant nothing to the little filly, as tomorrow was a day she had been dreading. It was going to be the first Hearth’s Warming that she would be spending alone. Technically, she would be spending the holiday amongst several other orphans, but that did nothing to make her feel less alone.
She missed her mom and dad.
She missed her grandma and grandpa.
She missed the life she used to have.
She missed everything.
In Scootaloo’s eyes, the orphanage felt like a prison compared to the rest of the town.
With tears forming in her eyes, little Scootaloo closed her eyes and slowly flopped down onto her bed, burying her face in her lone pillow. The white pouch of fluffiness was soon dampened with the amount of tears that flowed out of the eyes of the filly whose face was pressed into it. Scootaloo didn’t care that she was making her pillow slightly wet; she had other things to worry about. How long was she going to stay in the orphanage? Would she be there for the rest of her life? Would nopony come along and give her a new home? Too much was swirling around in the head of the forlorn filly.
“Why is this happening to me?” Scootaloo thought to herself, “What did I do to deserve this? Why hasn’t somepony adopted me yet? I’m gonna be here forever…”
Scootaloo was roused from her thoughts as she felt a hoof gently place itself on her back. The orange filly ceased her sobbing and looked up, only to find the owner of the orphanage, a lime green earth pony mare by the name of Key Lime, standing next to her bed. The mare always seemed to have a smile on her face, which gave Scootaloo a slight bit of comfort, but for some unexplainable reason, Scootaloo felt that this one meant something better, combined with the look in the mare’s eyes.
“Scootaloo,” Key Lime calmly said to the orange filly, “You have a visitor.”
This made Scootaloo smile. She had had visitors before, but only once every month. Also, she already assumed who it was; one of her friends, Rainbow Dash, was usually the one who came to visit her at the orphanage. Before her grandparents died, Scootaloo spent copious amounts of time with her friends, including Rainbow Dash. When they got together, they would read from Daring Do stories, talk about the Wonderbolts, or just do whatever Scootaloo wanted. Rainbow would also try and help Scootaloo learn to fly, but all their attempts so far had failed. Still, both pegasi were hopeful that Scootaloo would one day share the air with every pegasus that flew in the skies over Equestria.
After giving an audible sniffle, Scootaloo asked, “Who is it?”
“Rainbow Dash,” Key Lime replied, confirming the filly’s initial suspicion.
“Cool,” Scootaloo said in return. Despite the fact that one of her best friends was waiting for her, the filly’s voice lacked enthusiasm due to her lingering sadness over the upcoming holiday.
Scootaloo hopped off her bed and onto the floor, and then she walked alongside Key Lime to the front office, where the orange filly spotted her cyan friend almost instantly.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said, loudly. Again, she wasn’t as loud as she normally was, but she was still deeply delighted to see her fellow pegasus.
“Hey, kid!” Dash replied, pulling Scootaloo into an embrace and playfully running a forehoof through the filly’s mane, making her giggle.
After the short bout of playful roughhousing, Scootaloo looked up to her friend and asked, “So…What are we gonna do today?”
“Actually,” Rainbow replied, a confident look on her face, “I think the question is, ‘What are we gonna do over the next day?’”
Scootaloo’s eyes widened. “Wait…W-Wh-What??” she asked. Was she actually going to spend Hearth’s Warming at somewhere other than the orphanage?
“You heard me, kid!” Rainbow happily replied, “You’re gonna be spending Hearth’s Warming with my parents and I in Cloudsdale!”
“I-I am?” Scootaloo asked again, this time with a hint of concern.
“Yeah! Wait…What’s up, kid? You don’t sound too excited all of a sudden.”
“Oh,” the filly continued as she looked downward, “It’s just that…Why me? What about all the other fillies and colts here? How come I get to go and they don’t? Don’t they deserve to spend Hearth’s Warming somewhere other than this dreary place?”
Rainbow was genuinely surprised with her young friend’s reaction. She thought for sure that Scootaloo would be so excited to get out of the orphanage for a day or two that she wouldn’t even think about the happiness of the other children that she shared a temporary home with.
“I, uhhh…” Dash continued, rubbing the back of her head with a forehoof, “I can’t really explain that to you right now, Scoot. I think it’s best if you save that question for later.”
Scootaloo was definitely confused now. Surely she would have thought that Rainbow would be able to answer a simple question like that right off the bat. For a brief moment, she wondered if Rainbow had all of a sudden stopped caring about younger ponies other than her, but she concluded that that just wasn’t possible. It wasn’t like the cyan pegasus to do such a thing.
“Alright,” Scootaloo hesitantly replied.
“Hey, come on, Scoot,” Dash said, lifting Scootaloo’s chin to where she could meet her gaze, “Look, I know this is kinda tough for you cause your family’s no longer around, but at least you’re gonna be spending Hearth’s Warming with a friend, right? Doesn’t that make you happy?”
It took several seconds for Scootaloo to reply, but she eventually smiled and said, “Yeah, I guess it does. Thanks, Rainbow Dash.”
“No problem, kid,” Dash replied with a warm smile as she sat on her rump and pulled her friend in for a hug.
“Scoot!” Dash exclaimed in a whisper as she tried to nudge the orange filly awake, “Scoot, wake up!”
Groggily, Scootaloo replied, “H-Huh?” as she opened her eyes and saw her cyan friend standing above her.
“It’s Hearth’s Warming!” Dash enthusiastically replied, this time a little louder.
Hearing her friend’s excitement-laden words brought a smile to Scootaloo’s tired-looking face. “Oh, yeah!” the filly replied, “It is! It’s…” her words faltered as she remembered that this was a day she had not been looking forward to. It was Scootaloo’s first Hearth’s Warming without her family. Even though she was happy to be in the presence of a loving and caring friend, deep down, she was sadder than ever at the reality that her family was not, and never would be again, there to celebrate this wonderful holiday with her.
“C-Could you give me a minute, Dash?” Scootaloo asked.
“Sure, kid,” Rainbow calmly replied, moving away from Scootaloo’s borrowed sleeping bag and heading for the door.
Once Rainbow had left the bedroom, Scootaloo sat up and stretched her limbs. She then looked over to the lone window on the other side of the bed that Dash had slept on last night, seeing only bright, blue skies, as the snow clouds were lower than Dash’s parent’s cloud home. The orange filly slowly trotted over to the window and looked up at the sky above her, seeing a few yellow rays of Princess Celestia’s sun amongst the vast sea of blue.
As Scootaloo looked on, her sadness regarding this particular day resurfaced, and it wasn’t long before a few tears began to well up in her eyes. Images of her grandparents, plus the pictures of her parents that she had seen, began appearing in her head, only making Scootaloo come that much closer to full-on crying.
Opening her mouth slightly, Scootaloo quietly said to herself, “M-Mom…D-D-Dad…hhh…Grandma…G-Grandpa…hhh…I wish that all of you were…hhh…here to celebrate H-Hearth’s Warming with me and R-Rainbow Dash…hhh…I really miss you guys…”
As she finished, Scootaloo closed her eyes, and a lone tear fell from her right eye and plopped onto the cloud floor below her, quickly being absorbed into the white fluffiness beneath her hooves.
Scootaloo stayed this way for a few more minutes before she decided that it was time to go and greet Dash and her parents in the living room. Turning around, Scootaloo wiped her tears away with a forehoof and made her way to the bedroom door, leaving the room and eventually making it into the living room, where Rainbow Dash and her parents, Firefly and Rainbow Blaze, were patiently waiting for her.
“There she is!” Dash said, excitedly. This brought a smile to Scootaloo’s face.
“Good morning, Scootaloo!” Firefly happily said to her daughter’s friend.
“Happy Hearth’s Warming!” Rainbow Blaze said.
“Th-Thanks,” Scootaloo replied, “You, too.” The filly then looked in the corner of the room and saw a beautiful evergreen tree, its limbs decorated in ornaments both young and old. Underneath the tree was a rather large amount of presents, making the pegasus filly even more curious as to what this Hearth’s Warming morning would hold.
“Hey, don’t just stand there, kid!” Dash said, shaking Scootaloo from her thoughts, “Let’s open some presents!”
Scootaloo smiled widely. “Sweet!” she exclaimed in reply.
Tangled ribbons and scraps of wrapping paper littered the living room floor as a result of the many presents that had been opened. Rainbow Dash and her parents had gotten each other some wonderful gifts, everything from a white collar with a black bow tie for Blaze and a new set of bath towels for Firefly to a set of Wonderbolts coasters for Rainbow’s coffee table back home.
However, the three of them had also gotten quite a few things for Scootaloo. The orange filly had received a pair of new stuffed animals, a few new books, plus two large, new posters, one of Daring Do and the other of the Wonderbolts. Scootaloo felt immensely grateful for the kindness and generosity of her friend’s family, but at the same time, she felt guilty that she had nothing to give them in return, even if they hadn’t expected her to do so.
Despite her sadness from earlier, Scootaloo was extremely happy to be amongst Rainbow Dash and her parents on this day. However, she couldn’t help but wonder what was happening back at the orphanage. What would she have missed once she had to go back? She also wondered why Dash still hadn’t answered her question from the other day. Why her? Why was she the only one who would get to leave and spend Hearth’s Warming with ponies other than the ones at the orphanage? She hoped she would get an answer sooner rather than later.
“You guys,” Scootaloo began, “Thank you so much for everything. I didn’t think I was going to spend Hearth’s Warming in somewhere other than the orphanage. I also didn’t expect to get this many presents, and now I feel bad that I don’t have anything to give to you.”
“Oh, please don’t worry about that, Scootaloo,” Firefly calmly replied, “You didn’t know ahead of time that you’d be coming here. It would be rude for us to expect that you get us presents.”
“We wanted this day to be a special one for you,” Blaze added, “How do you feel about it so far?”
“Well…” Scootaloo continued, “It’s nothing like my grandparents and I spent together, but I’ve had a wonderful time spending Hearth’s Warming with all of you. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, kid,” Dash replied with a smile.
There was a brief silence before Scootaloo asked, “So…when do I have to leave?”
“Actually, Scootaloo,” Firefly jumped in, “We have one last present for you. Blaze, would you please go fetch it?”
“I’m on it!” the pegasus stallion repied, quickly trotting to a nearby cabinet and pulling out Scootaloo’s present.
When Scootaloo had her gift set down in front of her, she admired how it looked. It had orange wrapping paper and a purple ribbon, reminding her of her own colors. The present itself was in the shape of a slim, rectangular prism, making the filly think that it had to have been something from a clothing store of some kind, possibly the Carousel Boutique.
Untying the ribbon and tearing the paper open, Scootaloo was soon face to face with a white box. She opened it, only to be confused by what she saw inside, a large, rectangular, orange envelope that she had occasionally seen at or around the post office. She took the envelope out of the box and flipped it over, slowly opening one end.
As Scootaloo began to open the envelope, Rainbow Dash scooted closer to her parents while Blaze gently took Firefly’s forehoof in his own, all three pegasi sporting genuine smiles.
Scootaloo felt she had already been confused enough when she initially saw the envelope, but she grew even more mystified upon seeing a small stack of white papers inside. She took them out, only to realize that it was some kind of form that had already been filled out. She glanced at the first few pages, not knowing quite what they represented. However, it wasn’t until the filly looked at the top of the front page that she got an answer.
“Uhhh…It says, ‘Application for…’” Scootaloo’s eyes slowly widened as she looked at the third word. “‘A-Ad-Adoption?’”
By now, Scootaloo was shaking with surprise, her breath becoming labored as she realized what she was holding in her hooves. “Wh-Wh-What is this??” she asked.
“What does it look like, kid?” Dash excitedly replied.
“Look at the letter in the back!” Firefly said.
Scootaloo did as she was told, her hooves trembling as she placed all the papers on the floor next to her, except for the letter that was at the bottom of the stack. It was a letter from the Equestrian Adoption Department dated only two days prior, and it read that Firefly and Rainbow Blaze were now the new legal guardians of Scootaloo.
“Is this all real??” Scootaloo asked again, not believing that the stack of papers was telling the truth.
“It sure is!” Blaze proudly proclaimed, “We’ve officially adopted you, Scootaloo!”
“Welcome to the family, kid!” Dash responded, leaning down and hugging the orange filly.
Scootaloo was completely and utterly flabbergasted. Less than 24 hours ago, she was sitting on her bed in the orphanage, grieving over not having her family around for Hearth’s Warming. Only then had she heard from Rainbow Dash that she would be spending the holiday with her family, and all she expected was a day of happiness with Dash and her parents. And now, here she was sitting in their living room, looking at a stack of papers that signified that she was now their daughter. Everything was happening so quickly that Scootaloo couldn’t comprehend the situation.
“H-How come I didn’t know about this?” Scootaloo asked, still shaking slightly.
“Look at the letter again,” Firefly replied, “We were approved only two days ago, and since we were already this close to Hearth’s Warming, we figured we’d wait and have Dash bring you over here so we could give you the news as a Hearth’s Warming present!”
“Key Lime already knew that this was happening,” Blaze added, “But we got her in on the surprise and had her act as if nothing was happening.”
“J-Just so you could s-surprise me y-yourselves??" Scootaloo asked.
“Exactly!” Blaze finished.
The orange pegasus filly was in complete disbelief. She was so sad at the orphanage that she convinced herself that nopony would ever come forward to adopt her and give her a new life, but now, here she was being told that that very event was taking place – or had already taken place two days ago.
Scootaloo now knew why Rainbow Dash couldn’t have answered her question regarding her being the only one who got to leave the orphanage. Also, something else major clicked in Scootaloo’s mind. For a period of time, Scootaloo looked up to Dash as if she was her big sister, but now…
“D-Dash…does this mean that…?” the filly asked the cyan mare.
“Yep! You and I are sisters now, Scootaloo!” Dash happily replied while hugging her new official sister again, “And my parents said that you can live with me in Ponyville so you don’t have to say goodbye to any of your friends!”
Even though she was still panting in surprise, Scootaloo now had an awestruck smile on her face. Since she moved into the orphanage, never had she imagined that Hearth’s Warming of all days would be the day where she found out she was being, or had already been, adopted - not only that, but by Rainbow Dash’s parents of all ponies. This day was nothing like the young filly had ever expected.
“Scootaloo,” Blaze said, sitting next to his two hugging daughters, “We know that you and Dash have been great friends for a while now, but when she told us that your grandma had died and that you were being sent to the orphanage, my wife and I were heartbroken.”
“We couldn’t just sit here and let one of our daughter’s friends spend the rest of her fillyhood amongst other parentless children,” Firefly brought up, also moving in to sit next to her two daughters, “So we decided to adopt you. It may have taken us nine months, but it was completely worth it, wouldn’t you say, honey?” she finished, looking toward her husband.
“Absolutely,” Blaze replied, “Scootaloo, we’re all very proud to officially call you our daughter.”
“…And sister,” Dash brought up, smiling at her parents.
Still in her new sister’s embrace, Scootaloo’s sadness had almost completely vanished. She knew all her life that Hearth’s Warming was a special time of year, but she had been preparing for this particular holiday season to be laden with nothing but sadness. Little did she know that it would eventually turn into what could easily be considered one of her most memorable Hearth’s Warming Days.
“W-Wow…” Scootaloo said breathlessly, a few tears of joy appearing at the bottom of her eyelids, “Th-This is…s-so amazing. I c-can’t believe this is h-happening…hhh…I’m so happy right now!”
“So are we, lil’ sis,” Dash comfortingly said as she stroked the filly’s back, “So are we.”
“B-But, now I feel really bad about not having anything to give you guys. This is all just so much.”
“Please, Scootaloo,” Firefly said, laying a hoof on her new daughter’s head, “Don’t feel like you owe us anything for this.”
“We did this for you,” Blaze said, “This is one of those things where repayment isn’t necessary."
Scootaloo took a brief moment to think about what her new father had just said before finally getting an idea. “H-Here,” she said, looking Blaze in the eyes while she broke away from Dash’s hug, “I think I have something to give you for Hearth’s Warming.” The orange filly then walked in front of her new dad. Once she was there, she reached her forelegs out and hugged him tenderly. As she pressed her face close to his chest, she let out an audible sniffle, as she was lightly crying at this point.
Blaze returned his new daughter’s embrace in kind. After gently stroking her purple mane a few times, the stallion leaned down and kissed Scootaloo on the forehead, silently letting her know that he loved her.
“Th-Thank you…” Scootaloo whispered into her father’s chest, “Thank you for everything…dad…”
Blaze kissed his daughter’s forehead again. “You’re welcome, my little filly,” he warmly replied.
After staying in Blaze’s embrace for what felt like forever, but in reality was only a minute, Scootaloo pulled away and looked toward her new mother. She then walked over to the mare and gave her her Hearth’s Warming present. Scootaloo felt Firefly wrap her forelegs around her as she embraced her new mother with her own. Pressing the side of her head into her chest, Scootaloo whispered, “hhh…Thank you so much…mom…”
Firefly immediately emulated her husband and kissed her new daughter on the forehead. “You’re welcome, sweetheart,” she replied, tenderly.
As Scootaloo continued hugging her new mother, Blaze and Dash came up behind her and formed a family group hug, Scootaloo being at the center of it all. At that very moment, the final remnants of Scootaloo’s despair had faded away, the only sadness remaining being the fact that all the members of her biological family were gone forever. Still, that was far from Scootaloo’s mind. In less than 24 hours, she had gone from being an orphan dreading the arrival of Hearth’s Warming to a filly who now had a new family that she could call her own, and best of all, it belonged to one of her best friends.
Scootaloo had felt lost, but now she was found. She couldn’t help but look forward to the many adventures that lay ahead for her and her new family, but for now, all she wanted to do was remain in the comforting presence of her new mother, father, and big sister.
This day was truly the most glorious of the entire year, even more so for Scootaloo, as, in her mind, Hearth’s Warming would forever be known as another day that her life changed forever, but one that would always make her feel eternally grateful.
THE END
Author's Note
I really wish I could have written this story around Christmastime, but I just never got around to it. I really hope you enjoyed what you have just read!
