Written by: CanterlotGuardian
Two eyes in the darkness stared out at the form that flew silently in front of her. It was almost as though they were tracking her every wing-beat, not wanting to lose track of her quarry. The tracker smiled.
It was almost time.
---
“Hey, thanks for letting me come over and help, Applejack!”
Applejack smiled at her grey-furred friend. “Aw shoot, it was no problem at all, Derpy. Besides, I was kinda surprised when you volunteered to help us out. It made me a bit sad that I hadn’t-a invited you to the party to begin with…”
“Aw, you don’t have to be sad about that.” Derpy grinned. “I would have been fine with just coming over here and helping you get everything set up. You know me--I just want to do my part to help out.”
“Then come on over here and help me get these last few banners up. Ya got the advantage here, with you havin’ wings and all.” As Derpy flew up to get the streamers put up, Applejack couldn’t help but realize that she agreed with Derpy. Even though she’d caused all that destruction with the lightning cloud and all, she had really only been trying to help get everything set up for the Canterlot rodeo.
Derpy, she’d realized, may not be the most coordinated of ponies, but she surely did have a good heart, which was the biggest reason why she hadn’t batted an eye when Derpy had asked her if she’d needed help setting things up for the Apple family’s annual Hearth’s Warming Eve party.
“So is that everything?” Derpy asked after she’d gotten the streamers up.
Applejack took a look around the room. The gifts had all been stacked up neatly around the fireplace, as was the Apple family’s tradition. They’d heard of some ponies using “Hearth’s Warming trees”, but to most family members that was just newfangled nonsense. The fireplace had been the place to put the gifts for as far back as they could remember, and to them that was good enough.
Her eyes continue to rove. The food had been set up in a table on the far side of the barn, all of the decorations had been put up with Derpy and Sweetie Belle’s help--the latter, before Derpy had arrived after getting off of her mail route, the last before Hearth’s Warming Day.
Everything looked to be in order, and Applejack smiled. Things had come together well.
Just then, she heard a commotion coming closer from outside the barn. She smiled at her pegasus friend. “You’ve met the Crusaders, haven’t you?”
Derpy chuckled. “Yep. They were a few of the ponies who came to help fix up my roof when that big storm busted quite a few holes in it.”
“Oh yeah, Ah remember that… We did that in record time, didn’t we?”
“Not too sure about that, but it was really quick. What, less than a day?” Derpy suddenly got an odd look on her face. “Um, Applejack… I wasn’t supposed to bring anything to the party, was I? ‘Cause I totally didn’t…”
Applejack dismissed her concerns with a wave of her hoof, as the barn doors opened slightly and four small forms darted in. They were trying to be inconspicuous, a virtual impossibility for the Crusaders.
“Naw, Ah wasn’t expectin’ ya to bring anythin’. We usually have more than enough food and drink by ourselves, anyways. Besides, you’re here as our honored guest, Derpy. Tonight, you’re a member of the family.”
Derpy smiled a bit awkwardly and looked away for a second. “Really? Do you mean it?”
“Of course she does, silly!” Scootaloo exclaimed, jumping off a chair and landing on Derpy’s head. “Applejack doesn’t say things she doesn’t mean!”
“Yeah, that’s just not somethin’ mah sister would do,” added Applebloom.
“Oh… Well, thanks then. Family isn’t exactly something that I know a lot about… so it’s good that I can have one, at least for today.”
There was an awkward silence at that moment. None of them had been around Derpy very much, so they never gave much thought to what her family life must be like, or anything else about her for that matter.
“Ya ain’t gotta worry about a thing,” Applejack said, smiling and laying a hoof gently against the side of Derpy’s neck. “If there’s anypony that knows about family, it’s me and Applebloom--well, all the Crusaders, really, but especially us two. So yeah, you’re family today.”
“What about your little sister?” Sweetie asked. “Wouldn’t she want to come along to the party?”
“Yeah, that sounds like fun!” Scootaloo added. “Dinky would have a blast with us!”
Derpy smiled. “You know, I think you’re right.” She looked over at Applejack. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m going to get her.” She flapped her wings once or twice, then flew up into the air and out of the barn.
When Derpy had made her exit, Applejack turned to the Crusaders. “Okay, y’all, I got a mission for you.”
They all snapped to attention and saluted her. She had no idea why they did that, but it didn’t do any harm so she never really said anything about it.
“What do you need us to do, Applejack?” Babs asked. Applejack smiled at her, mentally thinking that she was glad they’d invited her to come to their family party. She hadn’t known whether or not she’d want to stay in Canterlot for Hearth’s Warming, but Babs had agreed whole-heartedly to come to Ponyville almost as soon as the words had left Applejack’s mouth.
“Well,” Applejack began again, “as y’all know, Derpy is our honored guest at this year’s Hearth’s Warming Eve party. Unfortunately, it was a relatively last-minute thing, so there really wasn’t anything planned as to whether or not we were going to get her a gift--“
“But we did.”
Applejack looked positively stunned at this revelation. “Ya… ya did? Ya already got her a gift?”
“Yep!” Sweetie exclaimed. “We knew about her coming over shortly after you did.”
“Sure did,” Babs said. “That’s what we’ve been doing for the past few days, why you haven’t found us all that much. We were trying to figure out a good gift to get for Derpy. We finally figured it out, though.”
“We got one for Dinky, too!” Sweetie continued. “We were just going to give it to Derpy to give to Dinky when she got home, but now that she’s coming to the party she can just get it then!”
Applejack was still reeling a bit. She knew about the Crusaders’ penchant for generosity and doing good things for ponies--one member was the sister of the Element of Generosity herself, for Celestia’s sake--but this…? This blew even her away.
She recovered quickly, though. “Well, that was very nice of you all. Whose idea was it?” The Crusaders were about to respond, when a loud “thud” could be heard from the outside of the barn.
“I’m ok!” came a familiar shout. “Dinky’s ok too!”
“Man, Derpy…” came another more-familiar voice. “You gotta watch where you’re going. You could really hurt yourself one of these--“
“DASH!!!” Scootaloo practically threw herself out of the small crack in the door and launched herself at Rainbow Dash, hugging her tight.
“Ha!” Rainbow laughed, returning the gesture. “Glad to see you’re here, Scoots!”
“Why wouldn’t she be?” Babs asked, smiling at Rainbow. “She’s part of the Crusaders, too!”
Rainbow smiled back. “Glad to see you back in Ponyville, Babs.” She turned to Derpy. “Everything ok?”
Derpy laughed a bit. “Of course, Rainbow Dash. I take bigger spills than that when I get up in the morning. It’s all good.”
“She really does…” Dinky said softly. Everyone laughed at this.
“Well, now that everypony’s here that’s coming, let’s get started!” Applejack grinned as she made her way over to the food table. Everypony else got in line behind her, talking animatedly. Dinky immediately went over to where three of the Crusaders were and started chatting with them. They seemed to be very happy that she was talking with them, and they effortlessly included them in their conversation.
One of the Crusaders, though, had broken away and walked to a different part of the line.
“So why do they call you Derpy?” Babs asked when she reached the mailmare.
“Oh, for a few reasons,” Derpy replied, smiling. “Obviously, my eyes are a bit… off. But like I always say, that just means I can see things coming before everyone else!” Babs laughed at this.
“I’m also pretty clumsy at times, as you saw when I crashed into the barn door. That actually happens more often than I care to admit, but it never really hurts all that much. I think I’ve developed a thick skin for that sort of thing.”
“That’s pretty cool, really. Say… have you gotten any gifts for Hearth’s Warming yet?”
“Not really… The mail business doesn’t pay as well as it used to, so I’m kind of having to cut back on a few things for the season. I got Dinky some new toys that she’ll get to unwrap tomorrow, but as for me I don’t think I’ll be getting anything.” Before Babs could respond, Derpy continued: “It’s cool, though. I want other ponies to be happy. It’s fine if I don’t get anything.”
Babs smiled. “You’re pretty cool, Derpy. I can see why everyone around here likes you so much.”
They continued to talk amongst each other as they got their food--naturally, with it being the Apple family, there were quite a few apple-themed dishes, even outside of the dessert section. Surprisingly, the Crusaders didn’t pull their normal stunt of going for the desserts first. That, more than anything else, was a real testament to just how well the Apple family could cook.
Derpy got her plate and went to sit down on a bale of hay. A few seconds later, Babs came up to her, but she wasn’t carrying a plate of food like everyone else was. She was, though, hiding something behind her back.
“Whatcha got there?” Derpy asked after she’d finished chewing her mouthful of potato salad.
“Well…” Babs started, “me and the other Crusaders thought it would be cool if we got you a Hearth’s Warming present. Just ‘cause, you know.”
Derpy was a bit surprised at this. “You all didn’t have to do that! And how did you get it on such short notice?”
“Oh, it wasn’t really short notice. We’d been planning this for a few days, ever since we found out that you were going to be coming to the party. It’s nothing super-exciting or anything, but…” She held the box out to her. “We wanted it to be something special for you.”
Derpy set her plate of food aside, and started to unwrap the present. When she’d gotten it all the way unwrapped, she looked it over in a bit of shock, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. She looked up to say thank you to Babs, but she had already gone back over to the other Crusaders. Derpy smiled and held her gift tightly to her chest.
What she held was a silver-plated picture frame, one that held a photo of herself and Dinky together. The inscription on the back of it simply said, We’re more alike than you realize. I hope this means we can become very good friends. –Babs
Derpy smiled through her tears. “I hope so, too.”