Featured on Equestria Daily on January 8, 2013.
On the eve of Hearth's Warming, families gather around the comfort of warm fires and tell the stories of the holiday. But not everypony can have that luxury.
One pony walks the cold land, abandoned to the chill of the winter weather. But, while wandering the streets of Ponyville, the stallion notices a particular pink pony smiling at him from the window of a local bakery. Little did he know that her simple gesture would change his life forever.
And, as he looks back on his life, he will know that a miracle did happen on that one Hearth's Warming Eve.
Chapters (1)
9 views and no thumbs up?
Blasphemy!
Well written, and a very touching story. Well done.
Great story, it's so sad
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But really well written and good timing too with the holidays and such!
Damn it all, bloody feels.
Well done, sir. Well done indeed.
If you'll excuse me, I need to find out where those pesky onions are hiding in my room.
the feels!
THEY BUURRRRNNNNN
1884480
Thanks! I tried to do the original song justice... It made me a bit teary-eyed by the end of it.
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I know, right? Though I do hope more people take notice of this story, I'm just happy the current readers have enjoyed it!
1884617
Thanks! I think I need to get you added to the authors notes as a pre-reader... Let me go do that!
1884652
Yes, yes... Let it all out! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
1884917
Thanks! Gotta hate them pesky onions... Always sneaking under your nose when you're not looking!
1885249
Feels can do that to you... I'm glad you enjoyed it though!
Thanks, everyone, for commenting and rating! You seriously made the start of my new year a great one!
You must keep writing, this short read was simply delightful! Keep up the good work
You did a good job turning the song into a fanfic
There's a few things that don't really fit but they make more right than wrong in this story
Tears and quite a few. Listened to the song immediately after reading it.
More tears, more tears everywhere.
Love,
The Living Library
(Friends of Shadow Paint / Lisa M)
1885952
I plan to keep writing! My next story is close to completion... Though I don't believe it will be as well written as this one. It's in a first person perspective, and I'm still new to those (not to mention pretty horrible at it still). It's another story inspired by something. But instead of a song, it's a picture. I hope people will enjoy it, even with all its flaws!
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But, even with the slight inaccuracies, I think it turned out really well! I'm really glad you liked it! 
Yeah, I didn't get it 100% accurate with the song, and I'm kinda sad about that. I did a majority of my writing while in a car delivering newspapers. So I knew I'd forget things.
Oh.... wow....
I am wiping tears away right now. That was nothing short of an amazing story. EqD is insane if they don't accept this.
Great job, Caisius. *hugs*
very good story. i smiled.....i cried. was listening to one hearths warming eve by aviators while reading this story.....which in turn made me cry even harder. those feels.
So beautiful..it made me cry...
An awesomeazing and feeltastic story for an awesomeazing and feeltastic song.
Good job.
5/5 Twilights
That was so very safe yet uplifting story! Definitely a great Christmas Story.
I meant sad! Not safe. Sad.
That was actually very good. Feelsy, but didn't bring me to tears, since you really have to build me up to get me to even have some tears go down my cheek: even moreso to have me bawl.
You definitely did justice to the song, you don't have to worry about that. You went through the scenes and made them only as detailed as they needed to be, not causing it to be overly wordy. Though I'm a fan of rather descriptive prose, I didn't feel left out on this one. Also, for whatever fics you begin writing in the future, it's a perfect start for more writing... especially with hitting EQD.
If you start writing the long several-hundred-thousand-long stories, I shall be interested.
1929503 You can edit comments, ya know.
Oh! Boy did you do that song justice, I'm crying right now. Not because it's sad but because it's so happy, this might be the first time i am crying actual tears of joy. Great story man loved it! /)
That was a beautiful story.
That was a vey well done story, touching even if Chase wasn't able to find Starshine or a place to be accepted, but I still loved it, usually sad fics jsut deppress me but this made me feel happy, oddly enough.
I KNEW this was based off the song
You most definitely did it justice.
1887373
Thanks! I don't know if I should feel good or bad about making you cry though. Glad you enjoyed it!
1901755
Aviators did a great job with the song. You just know a song is great when it inspires you like it did for me. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
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Haha, thanks!
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Wow, that's a lot of Twilights! Thanks for the great review.
1929494
Thanks! I wrote a good majority of this on Christmas, while delivering newspapers in the back of my dad's van. Was a fun day.
1929762
Thanks! Yeah, I understand. When I read it over before releasing, I didn't know how people would react. I didn't really come close to crying, so I didn't think it was all that sad. Was probably because I had written it.
I do have some new stories in my head right now. Longer ones. But, with the success of this one, I'm a bit scared that they will disappoint. Nonetheless, I shall do my best!
1930107
Haha, thanks! I was worried that I wouldn't do it justice, but then Aviators read it and called it the "saddest story ever", so I knew I must have done something right. It's both sad and happy, so you can look at it either way, I suppose.
1930215
Thank you! :twilightsmile
:1930420
Yeah, Chase had a hard life. But it was all worth it in the end. He found his place by the end of it, even if it was only for the last few hours.
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I'm not sure, but I was hoping people would notice the final part of the description actually had a link to his song.
After I heard the song, I tried to hide the fact I had been inspired to write a story based on it. Aviators found out, though.
1930743
I couldn't ask for more than doing that great song justice. Thank you!
ohhhhh boy. just seeing the name and understanding that someone made a fic of this and I already had tears welling up. No time to read it at this moment, but if it's even below par with the song, when I get time, I'm prolly gonna be bawling.
Edit: so after finding time to read it, I can tell you that you did an EXCELLENT job on this. ABsolute justice done! I was definitely left in tears (in a very good bittersweet way that this song so deserves)! /)
Good writing, but the story itself didn't really do it for me. I listened to the Aviators song too, and it's the same thing: nice song, not nearly as good lyrics as the song/theme deserves.
The "twist" near the end was a nice touch, though. I personally think the story should have ended there, or perhaps ended slightly differently.
I notice that the only attribute mentioned about Nurse Hearthwind is blue eyes - same as Pinkie. Makes me think that she just dyed her coat and pretended to be her.
Hey Casisus, great story man, kinda sad, and the thing is theres peoples lives like that in real life where nothing goes right and everything just fades to gray without a pinkie pie around, really brought out her character too, made me smile at those parts, i think it could of ended in a better way, not so much plot, but told as a story, but what do i know? never wrote a story but you never know, this fandom continues to amaze me haha, i just might ^^ anyways great job
I was listening to the song while reading this fic, and just when I read that last line, that part came on the song. I teared up a little bit...... OKAY! Maybe not a little bit, but I still cried.
It was a very tear-jerking and heart-felt story. 
I like how bittersweet this story is. I wish it didn't end so suddenly though, even if that's how it worked out in the song.
Starshine seems like a jerk to me, but I can see the reasoning behind it. Kind of.
1901755 you brave person. I don't think I could handle that much bittersweetness. It would probably make my heart explode.
You did it justice, you definitely did it justice
RIP Dream Chaser : May He Always Smile
Such a simple story, but it rings loudly in my heart.
Thank you for writing this. I'm very glad I read it.
1931904 I'm glad you enjoyed it! Doing the song justice is all I could really ask for with this story.
1932213 To be honest? I'm similar to you. I didn't cry when I read the story over. I didn't expect it to be as successful as it has been. I'm just very thankful for it all. And I agree about the ending. I could have done a much better job, but it did the job well enough as is. Still, something to think about for my future stories!
1932265 Haha, it's however you wish to interpret it.
1932862 I'm in a position where I do kind of agree with you about the ending. I like the concept of how it ended, just not quite how I wrote it. It felt rushed compared to the rest, which is disappointing to me.
You don't have to write stories to know what a good story is. Tell me if you ever write one, and I'll check it out!
1938479 I'm glad you enjoyed it! I tried to write it to match the story, for the most part at least.
1940641 Starshine was young and in a really tough situation. She wanted to escape, though I don't think I agree with her leaving poor Chase behind.
And the story followed the song in most aspects, including how it ended. It ended pretty quickly, though I do believe I could have done a better job at not making it feel so rushed.
Also, I wish they had a bittersweet tag for stories like this. But maybe that's just me.
1966022 That's all I could have asked for. My goal from the start was to do the song justice.
And, yes, may Dream Chaser rest in peace. I believe he will carry that smile with him forever.
2035179 And I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm usually the type of person to write these huge 200k word stories. I prefer those, but it was refreshing to write a short story like this.
2059386 Honestly? I have a one shot story that is nearly 20 k on it's own.
2059413 Oh, nice. Yeah, I definitely consider this one short. Just basing it off a song isn't enough to make anything very large. I didn't want to stretch it out farther than it needed to be.
I saw this fic on Jan 1st and I told myself, I would read this on Dec of the year in time for Heartswarming. I waited and waited, telling myself to wait. Well, here we are, and the wait was so worth it! It was emotional, heartwarming, and everything else that this song was supposed to be.
3641611
Wow, I find it crazy how you were able to wait that long and not forget about the story. It's actually very inspiring! I'm so glad you enjoyed the story!
Im so happy i finally got around to reading this. I put this story in my read later list about this time last year with the intent of reading it in the fallowing days but never did.
But now i have on this, the most appropriate day for it, Christmas eve.
I loved it.
A sad romance-ish story.
From me to you, have a happy holiday and dont let "alone" be a thing on this day. Or any day.
3678796
Wow, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Wow... I'm feeling really depressed and happy right now... Is that even possible? I'm depressed because he didn't realize it earlier, and is now dead. But I'm happy that it happened at all. Just... wow.
Well, you most certainly did the song justice. That was beautiful. Very few fanfics leave me like this. I can count them on one hand. I applaud you. Great job.
4043862
Wow, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!
This story is really sweet and clearly shows how far Pinkie can go to make one happy and really shows her caring nature.
And I also realized that his name was really clever xD
I have reviewed this HERE.
Caisius, you are probably the best author I have ever read from. I noticed that you said in a previous post that you hated the fact that you felt rushed at the end of the story because it didn't provide as much meaning as the rest of it. I understand exactly how you feel in that sense. I'm a small-time author myself, little stories I write for myself, and I know exactly how hard it can be to write the meaning of something while still really getting the inner message across. I know the perfect way for you to fix that though. Ever since I read this story I have been imagining it as a fanfilm, just like the story of Snowdrop. I mean seriously, can't you see it? A one hour or so film describing the story in every aspect that it's supposed to have! It would be amazing! I would love to help you make that possible, I may not be able to help right away, but I truly believe that you have what it takes to make this happen if you so desire it to happen. Please let me know what your thoughts are soon.
Again, beautiful story.
And Thank You
Featured in December for Tag-A-Long's Book Club