Rainbow Dash awoke, she was on her own once more. She had not been invited to any Hearth’s Warming Eve parties this year, unlike the last. Her five other friends had someone to celebrate the special occasion with: Twilight was in Canterlot with her parents, Applejack was spending it with her family, Pinkie with the Cakes, Rarity with her parents, and even Fluttershy was with animals, who she just wanted to spend the day with after last year’s hectic celebrations; but Dash had no-one to share it with except her pet tortoise, Tank. Tank was a good pet: he was loyal and he had shared many a time with his owner playing in the fields (albeit slowly).
Rainbow glanced from her bed to see the tortoise sleeping and letting out a faint snore. She had awoken to the sound of silence, her cloud home was so high up, she couldn’t even hear the cheers of fillies playing in the snow below. A wave of loneliness flew over the pony as she lazily got out of her bed and trotted down to her lounge. The room was had no festive decorations at all. As on any other day, the large sofa, multi-seater dining table and well stocked kitchen sat there, waiting for someone to use them.
I’ll get a bite to eat, not like there’s anything else to do, she thought to herself. Unenthusiastically, the pegasus trotted over to her kitchen counter and made herself a bowl of cereal. Bags hung under her eyes and the loneliness she was feeling slowed down her every movement, it took her 5 minutes to complete the simple task of making cereal. She flopped down onto one of her dining chairs with a slight thump and ate her breakfast. There was nothing in the world Rainbow would want for breakfast other than a bowl of Wondero’s, the official cereal of her favorite flying team, the Wonderbolts. Her lack of any sort of enthusiasm made the normally delicious cereal taste bland and stale. Maybe she had lost all her appetite for the sugar coated cereal, or maybe the seclusion she was feeling somehow changed the taste. The pegasus didn’t know, nor did she care. After finishing her cereal, she trotted outside to feel the cold winter breeze on her blue fur.
Upon opening the door, she noticed something strange; a letter had arrived for her and had been placed on the fluffy cloud garden. She picked it up and ran inside with a flash of excitement to see what she had just received. Rainbow jumped onto the same chair she had sat on whilst eating her breakfast and ripped the envelope open with her mouth. Tipping the letter over with her wing, a small, folded up slip fell onto the table below. Hurriedly, Rainbow grabbed the slip and opened it up. Bills, she had gotten excited over just simple bills. She let out a huge sigh and gradually made her way onto the floor. Was this what Rainbow Dash, Equestria’s best young flyer had become; a lonely old mare who has a tortoise as her only company and gets excited over measly bills? The blue pony had less people to comfort her this Hearth’s Warming Eve than her friend Twilight, and she hated it. Having no attention given to her at all this time of year just drove her mad to the very core. There was nothing worse to Dash than being alone when all of her friends were having fun.
She trotted over to the radio that was sitting on a cupboard, right next to her collection of Daring Do books. The radio was a dark mahogany, old fashioned beast of a radio. As Rainbow turned it on, a flurry of clicks and clacks whirred inside the machine and finally a sound sprung to life.
“This is Vinyl Scratch in the morning! Coming to you with the latest pony beats from all around Equestria! I hope everypony’s having a fine day this Hearth’s Warming Eve! Now here is the joint collaboration between three amazing pony artists, Good Ol’ Days!” shouted the voice on the radio as the energetic song started to play.
This song was one of Rainbow Dash’s favorites, so she sat down on her sofa and listening to the beats with a feeble smile. Soon it was over, and the next song that came on the radio was of no interest to the pegasus, so she shut it off with a humph. Rainbow glanced at the clock that lay upon a shelf of the cupboard: It had been and hour and a half since she woke up, and in this time she had done nothing but wallow in loneliness.
At that moment, a hoof crashed down onto her wooden door. Rainbow jumped up as the knocking pierced the quietness of her home. Curiously she jumped off the sofa and went over to the door. A tall pegasus stood in front of her. He had a dark brown coat and his mane was the darkest of blues. His face sported a stiff scowl, he clearly didn’t want to be up here on such a fine day. On his left cheek lay a dark scar which stood out against his coat, almost looking like it had been painted on. Rainbow stared at the mysterious pony, he stared back and they both shared the rather awkward moment.
“Are you Rainbow Dash?” the brown pony asked. He had a rather high-pitched voice for a pony that looked the way he did, but overall he seemed like a friendly pony, not one you wouldn’t want to be friends with.
“Uhhh yeah... who are you?” Dash asked with a bemused expression on her face.
“My name’s Wind Catcher, nice to meet you Miss Rainbow Dash. I’m Scootaloo’s father. She’s been bugging us all day for me to invite you for Hearth’s Warming Eve. So, um, would you like to come round ours for the festivities?,” he said with a smile.
“Awesome! Nothing’s worse than being alone on Hearth’s Warming Eve, I’ll come with you just to see Scootaloo’s face when I walk in.”
“Well, let’s get going,” Wind Catcher replied, nodding his head.
Rainbow gave a quick nod back and took off, Wind Catcher swiftly following. The two ponies swooped through the sky above ponyville. Rainbow looked down to see many Hearth’s Warming Eve festivities. There were small fillies playing in the snow, making snowponies and having the time of their lives. They whizzed past the Ponyville town hall and briefly saw the pageant that had been put on, there were ponies dressed up in the familiar costumes that everypony had seen before. Everything was specially decorated for the holidays; sugarcube corner had turned into a mass of fairy lights and tinsel with a bit of Pinkie Pie’s handiwork, and even the library Twilight Sparkle lived in had been made festive, despite her absence. Overall, the whole town was full with the type of festive joy that a holiday such as Hearth’s Warming Eve brought; even the air felt festive as Dash flew through it. The two pegasi continued to zip past the winding streets of Ponyville until they reached what Rainbow assumed was Scootaloo’s house.
Something seemed odd to Rainbow: nearly every day Derpy Hooves was to be seen delivering letters to this street, but today, she wasn’t there at all. Maybe it was her day off, or she had gotten ill or maybe she had just been normal Derpy and had an accident, she thought. Not thinking more than that of this odd occurrence, Rainbow gave a quick sigh and continued to follow Wind Catcher. Rainbow suddenly felt something she hadn’t felt that day, pure happiness. She was being taken to spend the day with the loveable Scootaloo and what seemed like her nice family, and she felt great. The overall joyfulness of this day had finally gotten to Rainbow and it had gave her a huge smile, one only a small filly could rival.
Rainbow and Wind skid to a complete halt in front of the house. The house was magnificent, dark red brick wrapped around the outside and smoke fumed from the chimney. The front of the house was dotted with amazingly detailed glass windows that gave Rainbow a clear view oh the happiness inside. Suddenly, Wind Catcher trotted over to the small wooden door, breaking the peace of the winter morning. Rainbow had just gotten over her landing and wandered over to the pony’s side. For a moment the two ponies stood there, awkwardness floated over them. The brown pegasus knocked softly onto the door. Inside the shouts of a small filly were heard, mainly shouts of absolute glee and excitement. Footsteps came crashing down stairs and down a hallway until finally, the door opened.
Standing at the door wasn’t Scootaloo, but a medium sized unicorn. Her expression bore one of extreme stress, and she was wearing an apron laden with beautiful patterns and colours. She had a coat that was a heavily saturated red, and a short, light purple mane with a few pink highlights. She didn’t look like the most interesting pony to Rainbow Dash; but the stressed demeanor and the tomboyish looks convinced her that there was still a slight mystery surrounding who she was. But then all Dash could really assume is that this was the mother of Scootaloo. Suddenly a strong scent filled Rainbow’s nose. It was the distinct smell of nut roast cooking in the oven , nearly everypony ate it. This led Dash to believe that the mare had been slaving over an oven all day, preparing the nut roast and all that went with it. It also filled her with anticipation, since she knew that later,she would be enjoying the taste of a nut roast with all the trimmings. The red unicorn huffed and puffed, staring in both excitement and annoyance at the two ponies that had just arrived. She took a deep breath and, still steaming, uttered some words to Dash.
“Welcome back Wind. You must be Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo’s inside just dying to see you.”
“And who may you be?” Rainbow asked.
“Oh, my name is Crystal. But I hate that name, call me Kristy. It’s so nice to meet you , but I’ve got to head off now, lunch isn’t gonna cook itself,” she hastily ran back to the kitchen to continue cooking the meal.
“Can’t wait honey!” said Wind with anticipation.
Rainbow stepped inside. She was standing in a seemingly normal hallway; a staircase stood right in front of her, and the floor was laden with a fine blue rug. There was a door right at the end of the hallway that led to the kitchen, and a door to Rainbow’s left that led to what she only assumed was the living room. On the white wall a painting of a gruff, brown pegasus hung, it had the heading The only pony to have ever climbed the great Mount Corwynt- Name Unknown. Rainbow stood there for a few seconds, Wind Catcher beside her as the hooves of a small filly came crashing down from upstairs.
“Rainbow Dash! You came!” Scootaloo said with glee.
“Of course I did, kid!” Dash replied, looking down and smiling at the excited filly.
Scootaloo skipped into the living room, and Rainbow followed. The living room was amazing; it had paintings of various mountaineers and something Rainbow Dash had never seen before set up in front of two leather sofas, which both faced towards one of the magnificent glass windows. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling and shone its light around the room. Overall the room was a snug and cozy feeling place, but Rainbow’s attention lay on the mysterious thing at the front of the room. Scootaloo made her way onto one of the sofas, leaped onto it, sat down and faced Dash.
“Hey Dashie! You wanna see what I got today? It is amazing!”
“Sure kid, go ahead,” said the pegasus.
Scootaloo leaped off the sofa and trotted blissfully to the wooden box that sat under the window, it had a small rounded glass screen and its sides were covered with various knobs and buttons. The filly pushed a large white button that lay near the top of the machine, and suddenly the screen turned to a mess of static.
“My Dad bought this for me, he’s really into his tech stuff. He calls it a television, it beams moving pictures all the way from canterlot! It’s like having a unicorn’s magic in a box!” Scootaloo remarked, as the picture on screen turned from static to some sort of image, “want to watch it with me?”
“Sure kid, I’ll just take a seat, I still don’t get what this thing is,” Dash replied.
The two ponies sat down on the sofa as a show faded onto the screen. Rainbow Dash spiked her ears up in glee as it turned out to be based on her favorite book series, Daring Do. Rainbow sat and stared at the box in wonder, Scootaloo did so too. The episode was about the titular pony having to fight her way across a speeding train full with bad guys. Dash couldn’t really comprehend what she was seeing, it was like the book had come to life and was being shown on a screen. Scootaloo knew what was going on, her dad had explained it to her before, so she just sat back and observed the show. Halfway through the program, Scootaloo’s father, who had been helping his wife with the meal, trotted into the living room and took a seat next to Rainbow. He set a fire from the comfort of his chair and the three ponies shared no words as they watched the exciting conclusion of the show. Even though they said nothing to each other, the air in the room held feelings of warmness, love and overall a strange feeling of family that Rainbow Dash hadn’t felt for a long time.
“And, dinner is ready!” shouted Kristy from the kitchen.
Rainbow had been playing a game of Battleponies with Scootaloo when they heard the shout. The excited filly led her guest to a room she hadn’t seen before, the dining room. In the middle of the large room was a small, yet functional oak dining table that had already been laid with plates and glasses. Around the edge of the room was a large bookcase, filled with all sorts of books, including ones on mountaineers, famous pegasi, magic instruction books that looked untouched and a few old adventure novels. There were 4 seats set around the table, Rainbow picked one and planted herself onto it. Scootaloo expectedly jumped onto the seat next to her, licking her lips and anticipating the food that was about to come. Rainbow glanced out of the window that was on the only wall not covered in the massive bookcase and saw that it had once again begun to snow. She also saw the garden of the house, which was in a very bad state. The flowers in the various beds were all dead and the grass was covered in various toys and rubbish. It was a stark contrast to the cleanliness that was shown throughout the interior of the house, there wasn’t a dirty stain to be seen, yet what Rainbow thought would be a clean garden was a horrid mess of grass and dirt.
After a minute or so, Kristie walked in the room, levitating a large plate that was covered in foil. Wind Catcher had taken a chair opposite from his daughter, and was getting very hungry, along with the two other ponies. In a moment of pure bliss, Kristie ripped the foil off the meal to reveal the beautifully cooked, amazingly fragrant and brilliantly presented nut roast. She also took off the foil from a number of other plates she had brought in, which revealed such treats such as roast potatoes, boiled carrots and yorkshire puddings. Kristie took her seat next to her husband and the 4 ponies began to serve the meal one by one onto the plates. They finished serving and at once, all dug in.
“So Rainbow, tell me a bit about yourself,” said Kristie, glancing up from her meal.
“Well, I think we should hear more about you two, I’m sure little Scoot here has been banging on about how awesome I am,” Dash replied, giving a slight chuckle and looking over to the filly that sat besides her, who was too busy eating to notice.
“Oh all right then. Well I’m just normal really, nothing much to talk about. I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie though, me and Scoot have had many a fun time in theme parks and such. Other than that, there’s nothing really special about me.” said Kristie, who proceeded to gobble down a roast potato, “I’ve never really been interested in learning much about magic, just seems like a waste of time to learn much more than simple levitation.”
“What about you then, Wind Catcher?” Rainbow asked.
“Well, I work most days as a mail pony along with that silly little mare Derpy. I’m a mountaineer at heart though, you’ve probably seen all the stuff around the house,” Wind answered with a slight authoritative tone. His expression suddenly changed into a sorrowful frown.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Kristie asked, now worried.
“Nothing, I... I was just remembering poor old granny and grandpa.”
“Now Wind Catcher! I told you not to remind Scootaloo of that day, do not bring it up now, especially in front of guests!” shouted Kristie.
Rainbow gasped as the filly got up and ran straight first out of the room and up the stairs, crying heavily.
“Oh Celestia, look at what you’ve done now Wind Catcher!” screamed Kristie right into his face.
“And you think hiding the fact that they are dead from our own daughter is going to fix that?!” Wind argued.
Rainbow quietly slipped away, leaving her meal unfinished and the two parents to argue and shout at one another. She knew that the filly needed some comforting at this moment, so Dash decided to make her way up to Scootaloo’s room and do so. That was when a loud knock came on the door, and the pegasus decided to answer it instead.
When she opened the door she saw the grey-coated, yellow-maned pegasus Derpy Hooves standing there in the snow, weeping loudly.
“Rainbow Dash! I need some help Rainbow!” cried Derpy.
Rainbow stared in shock, she had never seen the normally joyful pony this way. She had always wore a smile, every day. When she was working as the mailmare and when she was caring for her daughter, the smile stayed on as if it were glued on. Rainbow knew something was seriously wrong when she saw Derpy in this state.
“What’s wrong, Derpy?” Rainbow asked worryingly.
The distraught pegasus reached out to her friend and wailed, “It’s Dinky... she’s not moving.”