It was December 13th and all of Ponyville were already in the full swing of the Hearth's Warming season. Everypony was hard at work shopping for gifts, while others were busy getting their decorations up and ready. The whole town was almost buzzing with Hearth's Warming passion. This holiday was going to be a wonderful this year, even more so for a certain pegasus pony, who was out looking for a perfect gift; for a certain classy pony.
"'Scuse me. Pardon me. Coming through." Derpy flew passed a crowd of ponies, a look of determination in her eyes. She, much like the others around her, was out gift shopping. She wanted to find a gift for everypony on her list, bringing Derpy in front of a clothing store. After scouring passed many shelves and other ponies, she came upon a small pink and white striped ribbon. "There we go. Dinky is going to love this." Dinky had been eyeing ribbons for her mane ever since she saw the one that Applebloom wore in her mane. Derpy bought the ribbon and pushed her way out of the store, pulling out her list once more. "Now lets double check my list to make sure I bought everypony on here a present." She went down the list, naming off who she was buying for and what she had bought for them. "A pink and white striped ribbon for Dinky. New muffin supplies for myself. Can't wait for Hearth's Warming Eve to use them. Several air fresheners for the TARDIS." Derpy didn't know how many to pick up as the TARDIS was far too large to comprehend, so she just cleared a shelf. "Now let's see. I believe there was one last pony I had on here." She got to the bottom of the list, her gaze now fixed on one name. "Oh no. I can't believe I forgot to buy the doctor a present. But what should I get him? Darn it. I need to hurry and figure this out."
Derpy rushed home to drop off the gifts, before leaving in search of the perfect gift for the doctor. But what could she get him that he either doesn't have, or would like? She went to find him a new necktie, not like he didn’t have like twenty of them, but surprisingly they were all sold out. She rushed around frantically to find something and eventually her hunger and rather short attention span caused her to lose her train of thought and go get muffins.
"Darn it. Darn it. Darn it. I can't find anything for the doctor. Why is it so difficult to find a gift for him? He's only one pony… doctor… Time Lord… ARG!" Derpy yelled in frustration, laying her head down on the table. "I give up." Her eyes looked up from the table, staring at the muffin that sat in front of her, easily within reach. For some reason, she wasn’t all that interested in the muffin, even if it was blueberry, her favorite. Was it due to her upset mood, or was it because of something else? Derpy spent the next hour or so just staring at the muffin in front of her before her focus was broken by a sudden voice.
"Hey, Derpy. What's going on?" Derpy quickly looked up, falling backward and landing on her back with a loud squeak. She looked around to see who was talking to find the doctor staring, rather confused, back at her. "What are you doing down there now?" Derpy's face flushed a deep red at this comment as she quickly fixed herself. "Are you okay? You look like you've got a fever. And you haven't even touched your muffin."
"I-its nothing. I'm okay." Derpy stood in front of the doctor, her heart rate rising fast. "I-I need to get going. Bye." She rushed out of Sugarcube Corner before the doctor could say anything else. He was quickly left standing there, confused about what just happened.
"That pegasus still confuses me, but I guess that's what makes her, well her."
Derpy came to a stop after a while and leaned against a tree. Her heart ached. No matter how much she tried, she could never dream of actually impressing the doctor. She was certain that he saw her as a simple friend and nothing. Besides, why would he think any different about her? She didn’t think she looked all that cute, or at least cute enough for his level. The doctor had been all over the multiverse. What did Derpy have that he couldn't have seen from many others? Lost in thought and sadness, Derpy made her way home and wrapped the presents before heading to bed. Her head hurt from all the thoughts racing around in there and as she laid there, her heart ached more. Even more so as she continued thinking about the doctor.
The next few days went by slowly as Derpy stayed home, not wanting to run into the doctor. She feared that if she ran into him again, she might collapse under her own feelings. It was the day before Hearth's Warming Eve when there was a knock at the door. She slowly trotted over and opened the door to see the doctor standing there, wearing a green scarf around his neck. The sight of him suddenly froze Derpy. "Umm... Derpy. I have a question for you, and well, I was going to ask you at Sugarcube Corner but then you suddenly ran off. I then thought I would come over later in the day and ask, but then figured you needed space. And now I'm just rambling on." The doctor took a moment to collect his thoughts. "Anyway. I was wondering if you had any big plans tomorrow."
Seeing the doctor fall into one of his random rambles brought Derpy back to reality, giving her a few moments to comprehend his statement. And did she pick up on a slight blush on the doctor's face, or was that just from the cold? "N-not really. Just a small bit in the morning when I do presents and deliver a few last minute holiday cards. Celestia only knows why they choose to wait until the last moment to mail them. Why? What's up?"
"Just wondering if you'd like to hang out sometime tomorrow. I-if that's okay with you Derpy." His tone was different from it was before, almost shy in a sense.
His statement startled Derpy. The doctor, an awesome time, and space traveling genius, wanted to hang out with her. She continued to stand there trying to understand if she had fallen into one of them strange alternate dimensions that the doctor had told her about, and when.
"Umm. Derpy? Is everything okay? Oh bollocks. Did I not come by at a good time? Did I not wait long enough?" He put his hoof to his head. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I still haven't fully understood this world's inhabitants. Please forgive me Derpy. I-I'll come back some other time." He turns and started walking away.
Derpy's senses came back to her hearing the doctor rambling and subsequent leaving. If this was some sort of alternate dimension where the doctor of all ponies wanted to hang out with her, then she wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. "Wait... I really don’t have much else planned for tomorrow. If you want to hang out, I'm okay with that. See you tomorrow I guess."
The doctor turned on his hooves so fast, he almost slipped on some ice. "Great! I'll see you then Derpy." He ran off, a sense of excitement on his face. Derpy slowly closed the door, sluggishly making her way back to her bed.
"What am I doing? Why did I say I would go? Why does he even want me to hang out with him? It's not like he… No. That couldn't be the reason. He probably asked all of his friends if they wanted to hang out. Yeah. That's probably what happened."
The following morning was filled with much cheer as Derpy and Dinky opened each other's presents. Dinky looked so cute with her new ribbon in her mane. Derpy had got a green and white scarf. "Thank you Dinky. It looks, nice." She wrapped the scarf around her neck, sighing.
"You okay Derpy? You look upset. Do you really like it?" Derpy shook her thoughts from her head.
"Yeah. Sorry. I've got a lot on my mind. Now hurry along. I'm pretty sure your friends will want to see your new ribbon. Dinky nodded, rushing towards the door, opening it only to freeze in place. "Is everything okay Dinky?
"Look Derpy. Its snowing. Its snowing." Dinky rushed out of the house, before realizing she might want a bit more layers now that it was snowing and rushed back from her coat. With one last bit of hugs and thanks from Dinky, she ran off to meet up with her friends. Derpy stood in the doorway, staring up at the sky.
"I just hope the rest of the day is cheerful." She closed the door, lying down on the rug. Its Hearth's Warming Day and she still didn't have a gift for the doctor. What was she going to do? What was she going to say to him? How was he going to react?
A few hours went by as Derpy returned from her deliverers and the snow was starting to pile up. She looked around to see many ponies playing around in the snow and making snowponies. She arrived home and shook off the snow before warming up next to the fire.
It was a little afternoon when there was a knock at the door. Derpy answered it and was greeted by the doctor wearing an hourglass themed scarf. No idea where in Equestria he could have found it thought. "Hey there Derpy. You ready to go?" She nodded and followed him through Ponyville. "How were the presents?"
Derpy was caught off guard by his question, but quickly found herself. "Dinky loved the ribbon I bought her. And she gave me this scarf. What about you? Did you get any presents today?"
"Not at all." His tone was calm, much like it normally was, but it hit Derpy hard. "I was debating if I should buy something for myself but couldn't think of anything." That fact didn't help to soothe the aching in Derpy's heart. She had failed to find him a gift and now he was going to get nothing this Hearth's Warming. Her troubled thoughts raced in her head and she didn't realize that the doctor had led her into the woods. "Hey, Derpy. We're here."
Derpy snapped back to reality and looked around. She was standing in a small clearing in the woods, a lake rested on the far side, now frozen by the winter weather. "And where exactly is 'here'?"
The doctor chuckled. "I take it you don't remember."
"Remember what?"
"This is where we first met. Where I first laid eyes on you Derpy." The doctor pulled out a large, wrapped box and handed it to her. "Here. Merry Christmas Derpy. Oh, wait. I believe you ponies call today Hearth's Warming. So… Happy Hearth's Warming Day Derpy." Derpy looked at the fairly large present for a moment before opening it. Inside was a new brown carrier bag. She pulled it out, tears starting to fall from her eyes. "I didn’t know what to get you and thought it looked nice. I remember you said yours was starting to fall apart. Do you like it?" Derpy nodded, more tears streaming down her face. "Are you okay? You're crying. Did I mess up again?"
"No. I messed up. You got me a present, but I didn't get you anything. I couldn't get you anything. I don’t deserve your gift." She stared at the ground, sobbing away.
"That doesn’t matter Derpy." The doctor stood in front of her. "You didn’t need to get me anything. Just seeing you today, on Christmas Day, or Hearth's Warming, is the greatest gift you could give me."
Derpy looked up at the doctor. "Really?"
"Derpy. I love you dearly. I always have. Ever since I saw you here. And I would love if you'd stay with me for as long as we-." His words were cut short as Derpy tackled him into a snow bank and hugging him.
"Yes. I will. I will stay with you as long as I can." And with that, the two kissed. Derpy rolled off the doctor and laid next to him as they stared up at the sky and the falling now, all the way into the night, where the snow seemed like nothing more than little white stars falling around them
Author's Note
I know it isn't close to Christmas, but I've had this story sitting in a file on one of my old computers from about 3 years ago and I just had to bring it into the light.
