//------------------------------//
// Holding Hooves 
// Story: Azurala's 30 Day Derpy Whooves Challenge 
// by Azurala 
//------------------------------//

  "How are you doing that?" The Doctor asked as he stumbled along on three hooves, one hoof currently being held by Derpy.

"Doing what?" Derpy cast a sideways look in the Doctor's direction, ruffling her wings up against the crisp morning air.

"Walking and holding my hand-- my hoof? Aren't equines supposed to walk on four legs?" He stumbled over a rock, and the two of them would've gone down if it wasn't for Derpy's impressive strength and response time. "Oof."

Shrugging her shoulders, Derpy lifted the Doctor up off the ground. "I dunno. I guess it's just a thing everypony knows how to do. Except," she mutters to herself, "Except you apparently."

"Except what?" The Doctor asked, finally balanced again on three hooves. 

"Oh, nothing." Derpy lied, opening and closing her wings in a sort of fidget. "Let's just keep going." She pulled him along, making it up over the hill they'd been working on for probably a good ten minutes before the Doctor spoke up again.

"Where are you taking me, anyways?"

"Oh!" Pomfing her wings open, Derpy skipped once , nearly making the Doctor fall flat on his muzzle. "It's the Hoof Holding Celebration today! Didn't I tell you? I thought I did..."

"No, ah, you didn't. Uh-- hoof holding? Oh, oh, of course! Hand holding! Yes." The Doctor thought about it for a moment, and would've blanched if not for his fur. "Wait... Hoof holding? Why are we holding hooves?"

Derpy's smile folded down. "Aren't we friends?"

"I-I mean, yes, we are friends, miss Hooves, I just thought.... Doesn't hand hol-- hoof holding mean something here?" He tried to pull his hoof away, but the pegasus had a grip of steel.

"What do you mean? Mean something? It means we're friends, right? Don't friends hold hooves?" Derpy's eye went lazy as she lost her concentration, tugging on the Doctor's hoof in earnest.

"Well, miss Hooves, I know we're friends, but hoof, or hand, holding, where I come from, means... Means more than just being friends. Does that make sense?" Unthinkingly, the Doctor stood up on his hind legs to brush back his mane nervously before setting his hoof back down.

"You just stood on your back hooves!"

"Wha--" The Doctor looked down at his hooves and frowned. "I guess so! Huh! How odd... How did I do that?" Rearing up too far to do it again, he fell backwards onto his back and brought Derpy down on top of him.

"Oh... I'm sorry, Doctor, let me help you up!" Derpy scrambled off her strange friend, shaking dirt off her coat and beating her wings. She offered a hoof to him, but he stared at it blankly.

"I... Really still don't know how to grab anything with these hooves. Let me get myself up." He rolled side to side on his back pitifully, trying to gain enough force to turn himself over. After a minute of trying, he covered his face with his hooves. "I can't get up."

Derpy cocked her head and twitched her ears. "What?"

"I said," the Doctor muttered around his hooves, "I. Can't. Get. Up."

"You're ridiculous."

"Yes, thank you, miss Hooves. Please help me."

"Oh, yeah. Ok." She grabbed one of his hooves and pulled him up with one beat of her wings, dumping him hooves-down onto the ground. "There you go!"

"Thanks. Now...." He shook out his fur, poofing out his coat and mane in agitation. "Where were we? Ah, yes. Where I come from, holding hooves means, uh, being in love, I guess? I don't... Really know. I mean... I would always hold Rose's hand while we ran, but... That's different, I think..."

"Oh..." Landing softly on the ground, Derpy closed her wings and looked away from the Doctor, hoofing at the ground. "I guess holding hooves means the same thing here in Ponyville, and I just... I'm sorry, Doctor."

Eyes going wide, the Doctor stuttered in response. "Well, umm. Miss Hooves, yes, I concur, it is probably the same here as there, and... Oh. I. Umm. Don't know what to say, Derpy. I'm... Sorry, too."

Silence settled over the odd pair, the Doctor still puffed up and Derpy preening her wings nervously. The sun moved a little in the sky before either spoke again.

"So... I guess we should get going, then, yes?" The Doctor stood back up onto his hooves, craning  his head back to lick some fur down.

"You... Just licked yourself, Doctor."

"Yes, so I did."

"...Ok."

Silence again for a moment. "Would you like to hold han-- hooves, miss Hooves?"

Derpy's wings pomfed out uncontrollably. "Y-yes."

The Doctor offered his hoof with a toothy smile. "Then lead on."

Fumbling for a second, half due to her clutziness and half due to the Doctor's inability to grab anything with his hooves, Derpy took his hoof in hers and pulled him along again, over the crest of the hill. "You'll love the celebration! All sorts of ponies will be there, holding hooves! Rarity and Fluttershy, Cheerilee and Big Mac, the Mayor and her husband! Ooooh! We'll be there, too! Everypony will see us holding hooves!"

The Doctor blushed furiously under his coat. "Yes, of course... Uh, miss Hooves--"

"Can't you just call me Derpy? We are holding hooves, after all."

"Umm, yes. Derpy." The Doctor cleared his throat. "Are you sure you want to be seen holding hooves with a strange pony?"

"Doctor." Derpy wheeled on him, eyebrows crooked down and both eyes fixed onto his. "We're both strange ponies. Unique ponies. Does that bother you?"

"N-no, no! Of course not, Derpy! I'm only worried about you!"

Derpy shrugged. "It wouldn't be the strangest thing that's ever happened in Ponyville."

The Doctor could clearly recall the strange "Nightmare Moon" he'd seen cause trouble the first time the TARDIS had brought him to Ponyville. "No..." His smile returned brightly. "I guess not."