//------------------------------//
// Carrot Top (Talon and Thorn) 
// Story: Hearth's Warming Helper - Lunaverse 
// by Talon and Thorn 
//------------------------------//

Carrot Top carefully unfolded the piece of paper she’s just retrieved from Trixie’s hat, it revealed a collection of circles, or more accurately bubbles. She’d picked Ditzy! She glanced around the rest of her friends, they all seemed deep in through presumably deciding what they were going to get the pony they’d just chosen. Carrot Top wracked her own brain, she had planned to get her mailmare friend a nice warm scarf and hat for Hearth’s Warming. Ditzy’s current one was looking a bit tattered and the mailmare’s job required her to be out and about in all weathers. Generally Pegasus’ didn’t feel the cold the wet all that much but there were limits to their abilities. She’d managed to find one which nicely complimented her friend’s mane, it was currently in one of the many packages piled up next to her. But now she was only getting a present for one of her friends it felt like it wasn’t enough. She’d already bought something for most of them, but those could be repurposed as birthday presents or maybe redirected to somepony else. Self consciously she rested a hoof on her nearly empty coin pouch, she didn’t have much left to spend on a new present for Ditzy after what she’d already spent on her family, neighbours, the farmers union and everypony else she knew in town. 

Dragging her mind away from her finances she tried to turn back to the situation at hoof, what could she get for Ditzy? Maybe she should try to track down Dinky? If anypony knew what Ditzy wanted it would be her daughter, but she didn’t know where the foal was at the moment, probably playing in the snow with all her friends but there were miles of foal friendly environments around Ponyville, it could take all day to find her. 

Biting her lip Carrot Top noted that most of her friends had already started to go their own ways. She should gather up her parcels and get back to shopping, maybe another quick tour around the market would give her some inspiration. 





Carrot Top slumped back into her worn couch in her cozy living room. Her hooves ached after a day of dragging her presents from stall to stall. The bags containing her purchases were stacked in the corner for the moment she’d need to spend most of her evening wrapping them all, on top of that  she'd  found a bundle of cards in her mailbox, that meant she’d have to write more cards of her own as well. There never seemed to be enough hours in the day. She’d tried to save money by buying some colored pencils and drawing her own winter scenes on plain cards this year, but her artistic skills hadn’t turned out to be as good as she’d imagined, so she’d ended up buying pre made cards as well. 

She glanced up at the clock, the Farmers Union Hearth’s Warming party was taking place today, she’d been invited but she really didn’t have the time to go. It was a shame, but she had so much left to do today. For a start she still hadn’t gotten Ditzy anything and after a few more impulse buys she had even less left to spend. Still one advantage of this time of year was that even though her normal crop wasn’t being sold her various potions and ointments did sell well. Her hangover cure was popular for those who partied a bit to hard and her other cures and cosmetics were often purchased as presents. 

Now that was an idea! Maybe she could just mix up Ditzy one of her grandmother’s potions. The shampoo was selling well, a few bottles would make a good present, but would it really be something special? The same applied to a crate of her carrot juice. Maybe she could bake something instead? Since the competition she’d tried to keep her hoof in as much as possible and there were a few recipes she thought she’d more or less perfected. But she was already bringing food to Trixie’s party, would it seem too much like an ‘extra’ rather than a real present? Food was nice but once it was eaten that was it, maybe Ditzy would prefer something which would last a bit longer?

She considered for a moment what else she might be able to produce for her friend. She knew that Ditzy occasionally got bad headaches, maybe due to her eyes. They weren't that frequent but when they did occur then they almost incapacitated the poor mare, all she could do was tuck herself up in bed in the dark until the pain passed. Carrot Top had been reading up on a pain relieving potion and had a batch of the poppy seeds it required. Still it quickly lost its power once mixed so she couldn’t just give her friend a batch right now, she might not need it for several months after all. Maybe she could promise to make some up when Ditzy next needed it?

What else could she do to help her friend? She knew how busy Ditzy could be, how little time she had to herself what with working full time and raising her daughter. Carrot Top certainly knew what hard work was like, around harvest time she pulled sixteen hour days and longer, but at least she had quiet periods when she only needed to spend a few hours a day to keep the farm going, Ditzy always had draws on her time. Maybe she could get her a pass for the spa? But it would cost money she didn’t have, and when would Ditzy have the time to use it anyway? She needed to look after Dinky. Maybe she could take her daughter with her? But no matter how well behaved the filly was it wouldn’t really be free time for Ditzy then, would it? Oh! Maybe she could offer to foal sit! That would give Ditzy time to go out and do what she wanted for a few hours. Sparker was happy to look after her sister when she was available, but that wasn’t always possible. 

Maybe that was it! Time was the perfect gift for Ditzy! She was always so busy, so anything that would give her a bit more free time would be perfect. Was there any other chore she could do for her? She could just offer to clean her house or something, but anypony could do that. Was there something that she alone could do? Carrot considered for a moment, it wasn’t like Ditzy needed someone to help her plow a field or something... actually... Ditzy had mentioned in passing that the flat above the post office had come with a small garden around the back. She’s said that she’d meant to plant some flowers there to brighten up the place but hadn’t had the time. Well she could certainly help with that! Maybe add a few vegetables as well, anything edible would help reduce her friends food budget, you couldn’t beat good fresh produce to feed a growing foal after all! She hadn’t actually seen the space but it couldn’t be all that big. She could probably get it ready and planted in a day, two at most, it would be nothing next to running the Golden Harvest!

She had other skills she could use to help Ditzy with as well, she wasn’t just a farmer after all! With all the time she’d spent keeping her archaic irrigation system functioning she’d picked up a bit of plumbing knowledge as well. She knew the pipes at Ditzy’s house were just as old, if not older, she’d complained about them enough. Big Mac was her friends first choice when it came to household maintenance, and although she wasn’t quite so easy on the eyes as the hunky stallion, she was sure she could help out if he wasn’t available. 

She clapped her hooves together in excitement. Then her ears drooped a little, now she had too many idea’s instead of too few and most of them aren’t the sort of thing she could just wrap up and add a bow to. How did you give somepony a favour? She glanced over at the pile of cards and the coloured pencils next to them and was hit by inspiration. She started to dramatically sweep the table in front of her clean, but then realised that some of the bottles on it were breakable and instead carefully put them aside before laying out the paper, card, string and pencils ready to get creative. 

This would be the perfect Hearth’s Warming gift!