Scootaloo bowed her neck, smiling silently as Miss Harshwinny laid the flower wreath across her neck. As it settled into place, she turned to look at her two best friends, standing beside her. As one, their faces lit up in toothy, beaming grins. They'd done it. They might have had a rough ride, but with Rainbow Dash's help, they were together now. Unstoppable. And nothing was ever going to separate them again...

Scootaloo jolted awake with a gasp, the chill from the first small flakes of snow on her coat rousing her. She looked around, disoriented for a moment, then her face fell. Oh. Right. She shifted on her makeshift cardboard bed, brushing the snow off her flank and pulling a tattered old sweater up over her, the only blanket she had. She curled in on herself, resting her head on hooves pulled in tight to her chest, staring down the length of the lonely alley in Ponyville, watching the first snow fall.

Tears fell in time with the snowflakes, plaping softly on the frigid cardboard. She scrunched herself up tighter, trying to pull more of herself under the blanket, trying to forget. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force herself back to sleep. It didn't stop the tears. She didn't want to be awake. She wanted to dream. She wanted what she had in them.

An amazing near-sister.

A home, warm and loving.

Parents to hold her.

Friends. Friends....

Scootaloo whimpered, mumbling quietly to herself as the snow built up around her shanty shelter, her home, mind lost in memories that were only dreams, a fantasy she clung to more than life. Better than her life. "We've got hearts...as strong as horses..."