The Little Matchstick Filly

by Snowy Flanks

Chapter 2

In the cold of the morning light the poor little filly sat there in the corner with a smile on her face – the carriage had been traveling all night and it was beginning to descend into a small village, dusted with snow. The carriage landed in front of a small wood cabin. The filly opened the carriage door and hopped onto the ground. As she was walking up the footpath, the cabin door slowly opened and a old mare with a grey mane under a blue shawl. The filly gasped and ran up to to the mare she recognized as her grandmother whom she had been told had died years ago. The old mare looked at her granddaughter and smiled, then knelt down and wrapped her hooves around the crying filly who was burying her face into the mare’s mane. She picked up one of the flowers from the tray still on the filly back and slipped it behind her ear, then picked the filly up and carried her into the cabin. To the left was a fine brick hearth with polished brass vines curling around it and to the right was a table of pristine marble covered in a white silk tablecloth. As she walked through her down whispering sweetness into the filly ear and door closed behind her.

Comments

[Dr Mysterious Shade]

Does it end the same way.

[Starlight Nova]

Having read that story, I have to ask why there isn't a tragedy tag.

[Snowy Flanks]

9365703
No in the original story she freezes to death and goes to heaven with her grandma. The seemed a little tragic for a Christmas story so I went with magical carriage ride to her last remain relative who loved her

[Dr Mysterious Shade]

9365839
Ok that's fine.
I only asked if it ended the same because I know the original story and it's heartbreaking.
Not really what I wanted to read about for Christmas.

[Valhuir]

9365859
Yeah, it's a case of Values Dissonance there. At the time it was written, it was a happy ending for a homeless girl to die while her soul was still pure and unsullied by the corrupt world, as opposed to eventually growing up on the streets and very likely turning to the darker side of life just to survive.

[RainbowDoubleDash]

9365998
Ah, no, even at the time it was not a happy ending. A good end, perhaps, in the sense that it was the best of a bad situation, but not happy.

Hans Christian Andersen struggled with what today we’d call clinical depression during his lifetime, and this story was a product of that depression.

The Disc’s version is much better.

(Sir Terry wrote the above specifically because he hated how people thought the Little Match Girl was supposed to be “happy”, and he wanted to give it a genuinely happy ending).