Ever since she was a little filly, Scootaloo hasn't gotten to spend Hearth's Warming with anypony else. She never gets invited and she never asks to be included. Hearth's Warming is a day to spend with family and friends, and neither family nor friends seem interested in making her a part of their plans or to include her in any way.
A chance meeting with another pony on Hearth's Warming Day may give her a brighter outlook on the holiday. She doesn't want to be alone, just this once.
Chapters (1)
I felt bad for Scootaloo throughout this story, and your prose showed her melancholy in a brilliant, effective manner. I do wish that the ending was happier and less ambiguous and/or tragic, but that has less to do with the story itself and more to do with how much I cared for Scootaloo here, and that's quite an achievement as a writer. Excellent work.
5405924
Glad I can help someone feel something.
Thank you for your kind words.
5405945 You're welcome. Keep up the good work.
Really though, it was a very well written.
5405945 as a moderator of /r/Depression and /r/Foreveralone, I'm truly amazed at how well you encapsulated the loneliness that Scootaloo feels in her current situation in life. It's truly like looking in the dusty mirror in my mother's basement. Nothing to overdone and dramatic, but real and subtle. A little bit of Reddit gold for you, gentlesir/ m'lady XD tips fedora.....
-Snuggly, moderator of /r/Depression and /r/Foreveralone, owner of 59 doge coins and a recipient of them feels :,(
"Alone" always seems more so, this time of year.
I am, I admit, surprised at the idea of ponies from Samaria, but this may be just the limit of my imagination.
This was a really, really, great fic. You grasped the feeling of loneliness in an amazing and very detailed way. The story felt really...calm, quiet, sort of, which I suppose was the intention, but it really added to the whole aesthetic (if that's the correct word I'm searching for here). I envy your spectacular vocabulary; you really do have a gift for the English language. I liked the tragedy aspect of this story, and personally, I'm glad that you didn't give it a happy ending because it would have been the typical 'Scootaloo is an orphan' fic. Your writing is very different from your conventional speech from what I can tell and throughout the story I forgot a couple times that it was your writing that I was reading. Overall it was a really beautiful story, filled with emotion, and I loved it.
5405990
I guess I like to think of the darker side of things. I'm glad you could find enjoyment in it.
Thank you.
5406004
Thank you.
That... actually means a lot to me.
5406184
Far too many focus on the togetherness of the season, in my opinion. I like being on the other side of the looking glass from time to time.
My word processor automatically capitalized the S in Samaritan. I assumed it had its reasons and decided not to question it, though I'd never seen the word samaritan capitalized prior to that. Little did I know that it meant something other than "a charitable person." Google Chrome still says it is misspelled when not capitalized and wants me to correct it to be capitalized, so I think I will give the spell checker the benefit of the doubt on this day.
5406189
I may be goofy and weird much of the time, but this fic more accurately reflects how I feel on the inside much of the time. It's one of those, "We thought he was such a nice boy," moments... right before a school gets shot up or whatever. People are never who they seem, however well you may think you know them.
Except, well, I'm not planning on shooting up any schools any time soon.
I'll keep writing how I feel; that should be enough to keep the homicidal maniac in me at bay. 
5406237 We all have different sides that are sometimes never shown.
I wouldn't expect to know you very well at this point in time anyway. I mainly meant your writing style, and not the actual content of the story, but I can certainly see that as well.
While I am always interested in your stories, scoots, I have a problem with melancholic ones. So despite it most likely being an awesome story, I won't read it.
5406314
I understand. Thank you for your consideration.
Oh wow. This was some fantastic writing.
You should enter this in the Nonpareil Hearth's Warming contest.
5407645
Thank you for the compliment and the invitation.
I shall.
There's a space too much after "Scootaloo's".
5408459
Thank you, it has been corrected!
I get the feeling you had to hunt for that one somewhat.
5408071 One of the other admins is judging so I'm competing in it too. Muahahahah. No, your story is way better than mine.
5408830
I hope I do well.
You injected me with the feels.
I know this story will never be canon but who cares I loved it, I love Dark fics, and as sad as this was it was pure awesomeness, I'm glad it didn't go with the same cliche Scootaloo is homeless gets adopted bla bla, I'm glad it showed that some peaplo out there are suffering like this.
The ending raises some questions. Is she supposed to be older or was it all really just the day after. If it was the day after, wouldn't it make sense to have Luna appear instead of Celestia? I guess one could see it both ways...
I think it would make more sense to see Scootaloo much older in the last scene. That's how I imagine her
5886999
Maybe this is future Scootaloo, and all of her happiness is in the past. She's remembering a Hearth's Warming she actually had, and the harshness of reality was something she didn't want to see. I can definitely see that working.
That's a great interpretation.
As far as Celestia over Luna, I picked Celestia specifically because of how she's viewed differently from her sister. Celestia is the charismatic and beloved ruler, the one that ponies attempt to kiss the hooves of; her sister is returned and she is beloved, but she doesn't have the... stature that Celestia carries herself with. The meeting with Celestia was supposed to be that feeling that she couldn't really believe what was happening... that Celestia cared about her, of all ponies? Then, to realize... it had really been unbelievable. Luna just doesn't hold that same feeling, you know?
5887778 I am amazed at how you were able to understand what I meant by scootaloo being older and how you were able to understand what I was thinking even though I didn't say a lot...
I mentioned Luna because I thought Scootaloo dreamt the scene with Celestia. But now that I know the reasoning of your choice it makes more sense to me.
while this is a nice story, I feel Celestia acted slightly irresponsibly by leaving a homeless filly alone in that shack. Were I her, I would have at the LEAST taken Scootaloo back to the palace for a real meal till a more permanent place could be found for her, if she (Celestia) didn't just outright adopt the filly
6022405
It was a fabrication of Scootaloo's mind. She wanted so desperately to have a pony to share her Hearth's Warming with, she pretended Princess Celestia was there.
Celestia wasn't there at all.
If that had been the real Princess Celestia, yes, I completely agree with you. As it was, there was no Princess, there was no connection to Canterlot, and there was no true chance for Scootaloo to find happiness.
6024611 O_O I didnt realize that
Whoa... Such deep, dark feels. I'm amazed at how well you portrayed the loneliness and made this a great story. And I feel so bad for poor Scootaloo... Made me consider if Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Rainbow Dash even exist...
I like dark stories. Because they are just like my heart and mind. 
Alright, that's a tiny bit of an exaggeration. But I still have dark thoughts on life...
7933749
I think we all have those thoughts.
7933885
I guess so. But I'm probably the only one who actually stopped for a bit to consider whether this whole world is just a dream. And the only person who has pretty dark theories about the world a few hundred years from now. 
Aaaaand the only person who actually wonder why life exists. And how time works. And why. Yes, just why. Not to anything, but everything.
7933897
Actually, I ponder those same things. Those thoughts are a large part of what motivated me to create this story. I don't think they're really all that rare of thoughts.
7933905 And there I was, thinking I was the only one.
Guess that's what comes from pretty much being a loner IRL. 
Probably one of the reasons I have dark thoughts and everything. And don't even ask what I had my OC go through... She's been through hell. But hey, now she's in a romantic relationship wi- Uh, too much? 
Also, I find the brain extremely strange. How does it work? Nopony truly knows...
7933927
My OCs just die. Or go crazy. They never have happiness.
7933971
Wow. Mine went through ten years of torture but at least survived. And found a pony that cares about her. And fell in love. Well, that's probably because I think I kinda like that character. But that's not really strange. It's happened twice before. But they were taken. I get L- Somepony, not gonna mention any names to myself. Well, my OC! 
7933979
My OC would go through the ten years of torture, and by the end, their psyche would be shattered, to the point that they could no longer think coherently. They would be rescued from their zebra captors and attempts would be made to reintegrate the pony back into society. Alas, it would never work, and the trauma of what the pony had to survive inevitably ends with her killing another pony. Due to the justice system in Equestria, as well as the meager amount of research on post-traumatic stress disorder and how it could be a motivation for committing such atrocities (murder is a capital punishment, as Equestrian law philosophy dictates that the only way to maintain true peace is to remove any desire to kill--and that means immediate, swift execution of any found guilty of murder) leads to the pony being killed due to the hallucination of a zebra captor embodying a pony that had simply been a little rude to her on the street.
Happiness is not how life works. There is shit, then more shit, then the inevitable shit cherry on the giant shit pile. My mind spins the tales of darkness with no glimmer of light.
So Scootaloo imagines the whole thing? And none of her friends are real?