Christmas in Equestria
The Doctor stretched with a yawn and rubbed his eyes. Beside him Ditzy made a cute noise and rolled deeper into the covers. The Doctor smiled then tapped his chin in confusion. Usually he was awake long after Ditzy. What could be the reason for his strange wakefulness? The Doctor climbed up the stairs and opened the hatch into the control room. He tapped away at the keys on the console. When the date was revealed he broke into a wide grin.
"EVERYPONY WAKE UP! THERE'S ONLY FIVE DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS!" the Doctor practically shouted over the intercom. He began humming Winter Wonderland. Luna was the first to arrive, looking not bleary eyed but confused. The Doctor grinned at her.
"Good morning your highness! Really I can't believe I'm so late with this! Now I have a question to ask of you! Can you make the North Star especially bright for the next few days?" Luna was still frowning.
"Certainly but…"
"Excellent!" the Doctor cried. Bon Bon and Lyra came in next looking bleary eyed. "Bon Bon! Just the mare I need to see! I need you to make me as many peppermint candies as possible!" Bon Bon blinked at him in sleepy confusion but nodded anyway.
"Wonderful! Lyra! I have a few songs I need you to learn! Now it is short notice and I am one party planner short but I'm sure if we all work together we can have it ready in five days… of course I'll need to work with Rainbow to get snow… then there's punch… I suppose Zecora might have the perfect brew… and then décor… Rarity should be good for that…" the entire Core was staring at the Doctor as he paced back and forth listing off plans of his.
"Erm… Doctor?" Applejack tried.
"Then of course there's food. But Applejack and Ditzy can handle that… the princess is handling the star element…I suppose Twilight can help me get the tree… we'll let the little ones decorate it…"
"Doctor?" Twilight tried next.
"Oh this is going to be so bloody fantastic I can already feel it! This is going to be the best Christmas ever!" the Doctor cried happily.
"DOCTOR!" Ditzy shouted over everyone. The Doctor stopped and looked at all the ponies in front of him. He blushed and chuckled weakly.
"Oh! Sorry I got a bit carried away… what is it Ditzy? You look annoyed…" the mare was annoyed. She chuffed and stomped up to him.
"Why did you wake me up?! I was having a great dream… what do you want?" the Doctor blinked at her in confusion.
"I want you to help me plan the perfect Christmas party." The Doctor said as if that made all the sense in the world. Ditzy and everyone else blinked in confusion. Twilight stepped forward.
"Erm Doctor? What is Christmas?" the Doctor stared at her in pure horror.
"And that's Christmas." The Doctor finished with a smile. The fillies looked particularly excited, perhaps at the prospect of piles of candy and presents. Lyra and Bon Bon looked happy as well, possibly from the prospect of family and togetherness. Rainbow looked excited for snowball fights and hot chocolate. Rarity looked excited about decorations. Twilight looked fascinated.
"So it's a human holiday when family and friends get together and celebrate good will and generosity across the entire world?" Twilight asked jotting down her thoughts in notes. The Doctor chuckled a bit but nodded. Twilight threw her notes into the air and hugged the Time Lord in joy. "THIS IS PERFECT!" she cried "we have to bring this to Equestria Doctor!" she insisted. The Doctor's face fell.
"All of Equestria?" he asked with a breaking voice. Twilight nodded rapidly. The Doctor blew out a breath of air and quickly did math in his head.
"Twilight… to bring Christmas to all of Equestria we'd need at least a year! We'd have to collect the likes and dislike of every child in Equestria then make gifts for every single one! Then we've have to make more candy canes and cookies then Bon Bon and Ditzy have ever made in their entire lives! And we'd need Vinyl's sub woofers to play any kind of carol to even one city… it's nearly impossible to accomplish in a year let alone five days!"
"Yeah! Not to mention that it'll probably take those five days to make enough snowflakes to have snow on Christmas for just the cliff." Rainbow said with a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. The Doctor blinked at her.
"Wait! You pegasi make each and every snowflake by ha… er hoof?" Rainbow sighed.
"We used to, but we have a machine to do it now, unfortunately the machine is in Clousdale, so I'll be making the snowflakes by hand with Fluttershy and Scootaloo's help… hey, Ditzy can help too! And Twilight too! Hey maybe you can help to princess!" Rainbow said with a smile. Princess Luna smiled and bowed her head. The Doctor frowned.
"But why can only you make a snowflake? Why can't earth ponies or unicorns?" he asked. Rainbow paused.
"Well it's kinda a pegasus thing… we pegasi have been in charge of the weather for thousands of years…" Rainbow said landing before him. The Doctor and everypony were silent. Suddenly Twilight spoke again.
"What if… what if we skip a few steps Doctor?" Twilight asked. The Doctor blinked.
"What do you mean exactly?" the Doctor asked. Twilight smiled.
"What if, like you said, we let everyone make a snowflake… not just the pegasi but the unicorns and earth ponies too…" the Doctor frowned.
"We'd still only have fourteen different snowflakes; we'd need about ten centimeters of snow to fall across all of Equestria which is about 23,000 square kilometers…"
"Not all of Equestria! Just the major cities!" Twilight said as she pulled out the black board from nowhere again. The Doctor took one half of chalk from her.
"Alright still that leaves Canterlot and Trottingham, Manehatten, Ponyville, the Crystal Empire, Appaloosa, Cloudsdale and Fillydelphia…" next to each name Twilight wrote the square kilometers of each city.
"That's still 12,000 square kilometers… to cover that with 5 centimeters of snow we'd need…"
"Considering that each square centimeter contains 500 snowflakes…"
"We'd need 300,000,000,000 snowflakes!" the Doctor finished loosing color in his face. "it would be impossible to do that in a year without a machine!" Twilight frowned.
"What if we make it just a centimeter?"
"60,000,000,000. still impossible…"
"What if each of us made ten snowflakes?" Twilight asked. The Doctor blinked at him in confusion.
"err… we'd have 140 snowflakes… enough to sprinkle over our tongues…"
"What if we duplicated them?" Twilight asked with a smile. The Doctor's face split open in shock then smiled.
"OF COURSE! The one time where we can make the exception to each snowflake being unique rule! … hm… but you would have to duplicate them all at least 500,000,000 times…" the Doctor said with a wince. Twilight smiled.
"I'm sure with princess Luna's help we'd be able to do it!" Twilight said with certainly turning to the dark princess. Luna nodded. Everypony looked excited now.
"So… we're doing this then? We're bringing Christmas to Equestria?" Lyra asked. The Doctor nodded. Then he frowned.
"Oh paradoxes! We forgot about the presents…" the ponies all frowned.
"Perhaps Twilight genius can be used once again, else once again time with be our bane." Zecora said with a tap to her chin. "If we each make a toy for one child, then multiply till they're piled. By the end of the fifth day, there would be a toy for every child to play." The Doctor smiled wide again.
"We could do it! I'm sure we could!" Twilight insisted. Everypony looked determined. The Doctor smiled wide.
"Alright! Everypony get to work! half of us will work of snowflakes, half on toys! Then we switch! Ditzy! Teach me how to make a snowflake!" the Doctor insisted with a smile. Ditzy beamed and all at once the TARDIS was in a flurry, Christmas was coming soon after all.
The Doctor laughed as Applejack put a spot of gingerbread cookie dough on his nose.
"No get yer flank outta here before ya burn the milk!" Applejack shouted with a laugh. The Doctor stepped out into the halls that were draped with tinsel and glitter. He stepped console room and smiled at the console. Rarity had insisted she be allowed to decorate and had strung the center column with lights and streamers. She had him make the console screen show a fire place and hung the stockings she had sewn all along the rim of the console. They were already filled with wrapped treats that made the little fillies excitable. In the corner Lyra was plucking away at her lyre trying to get the notes right to Jingle Bells. After a while she sighed and looked to the door. The Doctor frowned and poked his head outside. There on the cliff edge was Octavia. The Doctor's eyes filled with sadness. Then he heard her humming a Christmas song. His eyes were filled with shock.
"I'll be home… for Christmas… you can count on me. Please have snow and… and mistletoe and present under the tree… Christmas Eve will find you… where the love light gleams… I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams…"
Miles away. Vinyl was sitting in her cell staring up at the stars. The North Star was so bright. And Vinyl felt so happy knowing that where ever Octavia was she had to see that stars, gleaming out so brightly. Vinyl shakily stood and climbed closed to the window taking in the bright world and began to sing a song that she could here faintly in her ear. She sang it out strongly for all to hear.
"oh! Christmas eve will find me! Where the love light gleams! WELL I'LL BE HOME FOR… FOR CHRISTMAS!" the door was banged open and a guard punched the mare in the back.
"Get away from the window you lunatic!" she shouted. Vinyl didn't make a sound as she laid there until the guard left. She looked up at the window from the floor, still smiling.
"If only in… my dreams…"
Octavia was still standing under the light of the North Star as she finished her own song. The Doctor stood for a moment. Then he made a split second decision.
"Octavia? Do you want to come in for some food… we're starting the Christmas feasts soon." The grey mare turned to the Doctor and frowned.
"but…"
"I'll personally make sure that if Vinyl returns we'll know." The Doctor said with a sad smile. Octavia looked about before she looked up to him and nodded. The Doctor beamed and together they entered the TARDIS. Octavia looked up at the décor and gasped. She took in all the sparkle and smiled. The Doctor smiled too as she laughed. She closed her eyes and smiled when she heard the gentle melody of Lyra's playing. Octavia looked thoughtful before she dashed through the door to the TARDIS halls. The Doctor stood in his spot frowning. Two minutes later Octavia dashed back into the console with her cello. Lyra paused in her playing as Octavia turned her instrument. She looked at Lyra for a prompt. Lyra placed the sheet music stand in front of the two of them. Octavia nodded. And together the two began to play the First Noel. The music flooded the TARDIS beautifully. Soon the Doctor was surrounded by a whole crowd of ponies at they listened to the two play. Rarity smiled down at Sweetie Belle who was watching the two mares play with wide sparkling eyes. Ditzy leaned her head on the Doctor's shoulder. The Time Lord rubbed his cheek against her soft mane and sighed. The music ended softly. There was a great out cry of whistled and whinnies and stopping of hooves. Octavia and Lyra took a bow.
"Alright everypony! Soups on!" Applejack said with a holler. The ponies all cheered again and rushed for the kitchen. The room had grown bigger and the table longer to accommodate the sheer number of ponies. The Doctor pulled out Ditzy chair and many other ponies were doing the same. As every pony sat done Applejack rose. Softly she began to sing.
"When family cannot be here, havin' journeyed far and wide. We sing a song to honor them, to remember days gone by."
Apple Bloom stood too and the pair began to sing together.
"so take your cup and raise it high, just as surely I'll do mine! And laugh we will at stories told as we smile at days gone by! As we smile at days gone by!"
In an instant the many ponies around remembered their loved ones, lost or far away who they had held in those lost days. The Doctor felt the presence of companions and family he had not felt in many years. All around the table tears were being shed, not in sadness, but happiness as the two sisters continued.
"for family not here, my dears, havin' journeyed far and wide! For loyalty and kindness both, we smile at days gone by!"
All around the table people were smiling and laughing as the two sisters hummed the rhythm of the song. The Doctor held Ditzy and smiled at her as the pair thought of their long lost filly out in Equestria.
"our paths will cross again one day, in time to reunite! For family is always near even when the seas are wide!"
Everypony raised their cups and sang the chorus in joy together as one. For they were far more then the peace Core, they were a family.
"so take yer cup and raise it high, just as surely I'll do mine! And make a toast for family and the tales of days gone by! For family not here, my dears, havin' journeyed far and wide! For loyalty and kindness boy take joy at days gone by!"
Once again the other tapered off and Applejack sang the last bit of the song.
"for loyalty and kindness both we smile at days gone by…" Applejack finished.
"to family!" Apple Bloom cried out.
"to family!" everyone shouted back. The Doctor dug into his meal and smiled at all the faces around him. This was by far the best Christmas feast yet!
"But we want to stay up and help you all deliver the presents!" Sweetie Belle begged squeakily as the Doctor tried to usher them off to bed.
"Ah! Little ones who don't go to bed on time don't get presents!" he said sternly. The three fillies looked up at him horrified and dashed off in little yellow, orange and white blurs. The Doctor chuckled as he made his way back into the console room. As he did his view was suddenly disrupted by something white and fluffy. He pushed the thing up his head and gaped at himself in the mirror. He was wearing a Santa Clause outfit. Rarity popped out from behind him and squealed.
"oh! A perfect fit! I knew I could figure out your measurements!" Rarity said walking away with spare bits of fabric and a pin cushion. The Doctor looked at him reflection. With the Santa coat and the hat and laughed.
"Why thank you Rarity! All right folks! Let's get going!" he yelled out to the active room with sparkling eyes.
Two colts leaned against a wall with bruises. They were young recruits for Celestia's army, taken from their homes to be trained in the army. It was a harsh life, where the stragglers were picked off, where one had to at least keep up the illusion of being strong. The two were leaning heavily on the wall trying to stay upright after a rough day of training when it first started. Tiny white flakes began drifting down from the sky. The pair looked up and suddenly the entire sky was filled with snowflakes. Lights in the city turned on as the many army ponies stepped out and gawked at the sky in wonder. Suddenly the sound of bells rang out around the city. Over their heads a grey pegasus galloped, pulling a strange blue box. As she did boxes wrapped in shiny paper of many color tied with ribbons and bows spilled out from inside of it. The parcels floated down from the sky on silver parachutes. The boxes floated down into each colt's hooves as well as the hooves of the hundreds of foals that were training there. They all stared at the boxes in wonder before one foal cautiously opened the box. Inside was a book. The foal smiled and pulled into out looking at their new treasure. All over the city foals tore through the paper and marveled at their special gifts.
"Look at my new dolly!"
"I got a pirate hat!"
The Doctor leaned out of the TARDIS door and heard the cries of hundreds of happy children. His face split into a wide grin.
"let's go Ditzy! On to Manehatten!"
and so the night went on. The ponies in the TARDIS had developed a wonderful system. Rainbow flew ahead to scatter the snowflakes to begin the snowfall. The Ditzy dipped between the clouds and the Doctor and the other ponies tossed the gifts out the TARDIS door. Luna used her magic to make the present float to the children who would treasure them the most. There were many more toys then they had originally planned. Rarity had stitches four different costumes. Twilight had made at least a dozen different books. Fluttershy had stitched quite a few stuffies. Lyra had made a few snow globes and board games. Luna had made a small castle with small dolls. The Doctor had made a spinning top and Ditzy and Rainbow had each made a scooter. The TARDIS room was piled high with toys as Rarity and Twilight worked together to box and wrap the gifts. The Doctor made sure they were going the right way. Ditzy was happy though. She was dressed up as a reindeer, antlers and a flashing red nose included. Finally the crew were headed for the last stop of the night, Canterlot.
"Alright Ditzy, try to get through but if you can't it's alright… we'll figure something out." The Doctor said as Ditzy glanced back at him worriedly, the pink sphere of Canterlot looming forwards. With that Ditzy glared at the shield in determination.
"Alright Doctor, close the door," she slid the goggles she borrowed from Rainbow into place. "This might get windy." The Doctor hastily closed the door and Ditzy put her whole strength behind each flap. Closer and closer they sped towards the shield. Finally Ditzy held her breath and screwed her eyes shut. After a few seconds she opened her eyes. They were in Canterlot! She hadn't felt a thing! The Doctor was laughing behind her and Rainbow whipped out of the TARDIS dusting the few clouds with snowflakes before dashing back in. The Core tossed the gifts out of the TARDIS and when the last gift was thrown and guided the Doctor gestured for Ditzy to come back into the TARDIS. With that he leaned out the door.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!" he cried before he closed the door and slowly piloted the TARDIS out of Canterlot. Once they cleared the dome he pulled the trigger and they were outside Appaloosa once more. The ponies were all cheering and clapping. Applejack rolled a cider keg out.
"Let's have some fun!" she cried as she jabbed a nozzle into the barrel "to Christmas!" she cried before handing everyone a stein. And the celebratory night began. After a few minutes Twilight passed around a secret Santa hat. Everypony was excited at the prospect. The Doctor was especially please with the name he received. Their gift would be quite easy. The Doctor leaned back watching the festivities from the side lines. Still nursing the same pint Applejack had first handed him when he notice one pony missing. The Doctor looked about in confusion before he walked past the door and saw it was open just a smidge. He stepped out into the cools snowy night to where Ditzy was sitting on the cliff much like Octavia was prone to. Her shoulders were dropped and she looked a bit forlorn.
"Ditzy…" the mare looked up at him.
"oh… sorry I left the party; I wanted to get a bit of fresh air." Ditzy said quietly. The Doctor shook his head and chuckled, settling down beside her and pulling her close.
"What's wrong Ditzy… you can't fool me." The Doctor asked. Ditzy sighed.
"Do you think Doohickey is happy… wherever she is…?" Ditzy asked sadly. The Doctor looked out into the stars he'd seen up close a thousand times over and smiled.
"I'm sure she's happy Ditzy… in fact… I bet she's having a little Christmas party of her own." He said with a goofy grin. Ditzy looked at him with a roll of her eyes.
"Silly Doctor, how could she possibly know anything about Christmas?" Ditzy asked. The Doctor leaned his cheek into her mane before he kissed the top of her head.
"Anything's possible on Christmas Ditzy… even miracles."
"No! you have tricked me! I'm never doing anything for you even again!"
"Please! If you do it just one more time I'll never laugh at you again."
"oh really… hm… even if I do this?"
"hahaha! Discord! Don't cheat!" Doohickey cried with a fit of giggles as the draconequus twisted his head back upright. Pinkie poked her head out of the makeshift kitchen and smiled wide.
"The cookies and pudding are done! Discord I made screwball muffins just for you!"
"Ah ah ah! Were supposed to call them ball screw muffin remember… so that she doesn't get accused of stealing from that other women who plays with my life like a pinball machine." Discord grumbled as he bit into the base ball with the metal crunch of a 9 inch nail filling.
"Oh come on Discord, those stories are good!" Pinkie insisted as she coated a strawberry cupcake with hot sauce. Doohickey just ate her Christmas cookies with relish as the two bickered about story quality and character development. After a while she yawned. Discord raised an eyebrow.
"Are you falling asleep? Are we really that boring?" Doohickey shook her head rapidly.
"No no, I'm not bored of you I'm juts sleepy… it's late… and it's Christmas after all… if I don't go to bed Santa pony won't come." Doohickey said before she slipped out of her chair and towards her bed.
"Oh you can't honestly still believe-" Pinkie stomped on Discords dragon claw. Hard. He made a grunting noise before he lifted his throbbing claw and glared at her. She glared back gesturing to the filly that was looking at the two in confusion. The draconequus face palmed, making his snout wag back and forth "That he isn't already on his way, really you're still up? Hurry up or Santa pony will pass us right over!" Discord cried. Doohickey hopped into bed and smiled before snuggling into her bed. Pinkie beamed at him. the two played cards on into the night betting on cotton candy and chocolate milk as they did it. Before Pinkie went to bed she put a parcel at the end of Doohickey's bed. Discord raised an eyebrow.
"It's from Santa pony." Pinkie winked before she went to bed. Discord rolled his eyes and clapped his paw and claw. The lights went out but still the room was slightly bright. Discord frowned before he remembered why. Pinkie and Doohickey had dressed him like a Christmas tree. He was strung up with multi colored Christmas lights that light up when he clapped. He also had a few baubles hanging from his antler and star on his horn. The draconequus huffed. Really he'd gone soft.
"Santa pony, Christmas trees, baking… that filly going to turn me into a sap." Discord grumbled as he pulled the cover up to his chin. He blinked then grumbled more. "and now I'm quoting fanfiction, what's next indie TV show cameos?" Discord blinked again. "oh wait I've done that already…"
"shhhhhhh!" Pinkie said from her bed. Discord looked over at her. She was pointing at a stirring Doohickey. Discord watched as the pegasus filly slowly settled back down. After a few seconds he sighed and drifted off to sleep.
Lyra ripped off the paper of the gift addressed to her. Inside was a book, well more of a journal really, detailing many new modern human inventions. Lyra rolled her eyes.
"Thank you Doctor." She said with a smile. The brown earth pony laughed.
"Guilty as charged. Ah well, it's the gift that counts, thank you Rarity, it's a beautiful scarf." The Doctor said admiring his new scarf. It was three colors. Light brown like his coat with two stripes of yellow and grey at the bottom of either end. Rarity sputtered.
"But! How did you know?"
"well, you have a certain, je ne sais quoi." The Doctor said with a smirk. Ditzy blushed and giggled as the Doctor spoke French. That made Rarity roll her eyes with a smile. The Doctor smiled and moved over to the console to clean it off a bit. As he approached he frowned and looked around the whole console. He began flinging spare wrapping paper all around in a panic. Ditzy frowned at his flurry of action.
"Doctor, what's wrong?" Ditzy asked worriedly. The Doctor looked up in shock.
"Doohickey's present… it's gone."
"Thank you Santa pony." Doohickey said as she positioned her new hand craved figures. There was a figure for each member of the Core plus a Discord. Doohickey giggled as she made the Discord figure chase the Doctor around the group. Discord chuckled darkly above her. He lounged back glancing around the room. Then he frowned.
"Hello… is this for me?" Discord asked turning the golden wrapped box around in his claw. He frowned and read the tag.
"To Doohickey, Love Papa… you have parents?" Discord asked in confusion. Doohickey as staring at the gift in shock, mouth dropped open. She took the gift from Discord and opened in gingerly. She glanced inside before she tipped the box upside down. Inside was a grumbled up mass of mechanical parts. Discord laughed heartily.
"Best joke gift ever!" he said as he wiped a tear away from his eye. Then he stared at Doohickey. She was slowly but surely fitting each piece together. Finally after an about three minutes she was holding a gold globe covered in holes. She pushed down the button on the bottom and gasped. The globe light up began to play her lullaby. Doohickey looked up to the ceiling and smiled wide. Above the trio was a massive map of galaxies upon universes of stars. Doohickey's eyes glittered in wonder as Ditzy's soothing melody plinked away as the stars gleamed.
"And you're sure it couldn't have gotten thrown out with the others?" the Doctor asked again as he threw things everywhere, searching for his precious gift.
"There's no way, all of the gifts were wrapped in three different kinds of paper; red, blue, and pink. there was no way a gold one would have been mixed up into it!" Rarity insisted. The Doctor made a panicked noise and looked around worriedly.
"Maybe I accidentally took it outside." He tried in a last ditch effort. He dashed to the door and glanced outside in a panic. He frowned and slowly looked down. There on the ground was box with wrapping paper covered in pears. The Doctor stared at it for a few seconds, unsure what to make of it.
"Discord! What did you do with my present that I made?!" Doohickey asked angrily. Discord frowned.
"I didn't do anything with it, Pinkie promise." Discord said with a rapid nod as Pinkie gave him a farely good imitation of Fluttershy's stare. Doohickey frowned before her eyes lit up.
"Santa pony!" she cried. Discord looked at her in shock.
"And it was just sitting there?" Twilight asked. As the Core all stood around this strange box. The Doctor nodded gravely. Zecora was examining it. After a few seconds she nodded, stepped back, and smiled.
"Opening it is a safe thing to do; it is after all a gift for you." She said holding the box out to the Doctor and Ditzy with a wink. The pair took the box and frowned. Then Ditzy found the tag.
"To the Doctor and Ditzy, love Doohickey!" Ditzy read in surprise. The Core gasped and Ditzy and the Doctor tore open the paper and opened the box. Inside was a picture frame. The frame was made of sticks and a few rocks and one of Doohickey's feathers. But inside the frame was a picture that moved. It showed an image of Doohickey, Ditzy and the Doctor sharing ice cream in Canterlot, the first day they had met. Ditzy was smiled with tears in her eyes alongside the Doctor. The two held each other.
"It's just like you said Doctor." Ditzy murmured quietly into his coat.
"Even miracles can happen on Christmas."
The End
A/N: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYPONY! WELCOME TO THE ONE TRUE QUEEN CHIRISTMAS SPECIAL!
Special thanks yet again to my lovely editor, Books, who made it possible for me to upload this on Christmas Eve at midnight... at least for some of you... I got caught up in the Christmas drink... hooray for pre-edited posting!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
I hope the feels were good enough… I tried so hard.
Have a very merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a happy Kwanza…
Happy anything else you might celebrate, and a very happy New Year!
-Authora 'Cupcakes' Adventures