The Hearth's Warming Bug

by Amereep


The Hearth's Warming Bug

/carles-piles/nutcracker-dance-of-the-reed-flutes?in=carles-piles/sets/the-nutcracker-suite

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding*

"♪Cookies are done!♫" sings an upbeat Pinkie Pie.

She dances around the kitchen of Sugarcubed Corner like a ballerina, invested into the holiday of Hearth's Warming. She leaps over her pet alligator, Gummy, who's just standing there on the floor with a blank stare. Pinkie pats the gator's head and bounces off. Gummy falls forward after a delay of his owner's action.

The mare twirls at the oven before opening the little door, revealing freshly baked cookies. She takes the pans that holds these crunchy treats into her hooves. Pinkie lifts them over her head as she tippy-hooves across the floor. She lays them on the counter and prepares for her masterpiece. Amongst the cookies were cupcakes lined up in a row, only twelve minutes old, each with whip cream decorating the crowns.

Pinkie washes her hooves, like any good chef does before they make art, and takes out a bowl. She hums a tune as she dumps the cookies in the container and begins to mash them into pieces. When they suited her desired size, she scoops up some and sprinkles them onto the frosting like they were tiny snowflakes falling from the sky. Pinkie takes some of the more bigger pieces and sticks some into each creamy pastry.

"A bit of cookie crumbs aaaaaaaand, voila! A treat fit for the holidays."

She marvels at her work for 'Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes.'

/carles-piles/nutcracker-sugar-plum-fairy?in=carles-piles/sets/the-nutcracker-suite

The pink mare's ears begin to twitch at a sound being heard in the room. A type of buzzing sound coming in and out around her. The source zips by her gaze in a black streak through the air. The path it took is going in every direction with no certain destination. It gets closer to one of the cupcakes and lands on the frosting, showing that its a dirty fly.

Flies carry diseases, and whatever they land on, they spread that disease on the content.

"Hey!" Pinkie yells at the insect and starts waving her hooves at it, "Shoo shoo shoo!"

The fly is brushed back into the air.

The pink pony glares at the bug, "I hope you're happy, nopony will eat this now."

She scraps the frosting off and it goes flying across the room; splattering on Gummy's muzzle. He doesn't react at first, but his long forked tongue comes out and scraps the sugary cream into his mouth.

Pinkie washes her hooves, paste fresh frosting, sprinkles cookie crumbs and places a small chunk in it.

She admires it once more, and the fly lands on the remade cupcake.

Pinkie glares at it, "Oh, a wise fly, huh?"

The bug rubs his front legs together like it had wicked intentions.

"Okay, fly boy." Pinkie raises a hoof, "eeeeeeeaaaat THIS!" she slams it down at the fly, but it flies away before her hoof smashes into the cupcake. The pony felt foolish at realizing the mess she made, but the buzzing around her quickly nabs her attention off the food. Pinkie begins clopping her hooves together, trying to catch the insect while it's airborne.

The little bugger lands and the mare quickly swings down her hoof. It takes off, leaving Pinkie to strike a pastry bag. Frosting sprays on the pink pony and she broods on her carelessness.

She watches the pest zip around her, before it lands on the rim of a bowl. Gently moving her hoof up, she suddenly swings down. The bowl flips on her and the contents of cookie crumbs fall all over her and sticks to the frosting; making her look like one of her cupcakes.

The deadpan eyes the mare was giving suddenly had a twitch in them from hearing the fly's wings flapping.

"Get ready, buzzer." she warns the bug, "Things are about to get gnatsy,,,,,,,, sorry you had to hear that Gummy."

The gator blinks with no interest of her bad pun.


/carles-piles/nutcracker-chinese-dance

The little insect buzzes about the kitchen; basking in the warm air that fills the room. Flies tend to hibernate for winter, but they can be active as long as there's heat and food about; making the kitchen the ideal place for flies.

Speaking of which, it was looking for something to devour as it dances about in the air. The bug's ommatidia eyes notices another delicious cupcake in its sight. It bops down at a steady rhythm, making sure there wasn't a pink pony guarding it.

The little legs of the fly makes a soft mushy landing on the sugary frosting. It spins about, deciding where it should start eating. The bug rubs the front of its legs in anticipation.

It opens its mouth wide open and begins eating.

"NOW, GUMMY! NOW!!!"

Suddenly, the bugs world got darker as a giant mouth snaps down, gobbling up the fly and cupcake that was resting inside the open jaw of Gummy's mouth.

Pinkie jumps for joy, happy to see that the trap worked. She lifts up her gator and hugs him before holding him out. "That plan of yours really wo-"

The mare stopped her praising as she saw something.

It was the fly; coming out of the gator's nostril.

/carles-piles/nutcracker-trepak?in=carles-piles/sets/the-nutcracker-suite

The bug zips out and Pinkie drops her pet. "Oh no you don't!" the fly was in a panic state and the pony wasn't going to let it rest.

She chases the pest upstairs and locks the two of them in the loft room. The place was decorated for the occasion; garlands, reefs, ribbons, as well as a few presents stacked in the corner.

The fly faces the mare as she pulls out a weapon.

"Je te plumerai les ailes." Pinkie said as she channeled her spirit. She poses like a fencer, holding a giant candy cane like a sword and jumps at the insect, "EN GARDE!!"

She relentlessly swings at the pest, but it just won't accept being swatted. It charges at the focused mare and spooks her; causing her to stumble back. Pinkie trips on her tail and falls backwards into the pile of presents.

*rrrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

A noise was heard coming from the pile of presents.

*rrrrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

It sounded like a chainsaw.

*rrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*

Pinkie explodes out of the pile, holding an egg mixer and turning a crank to make it spin at a rapid speed.

She stabs at the bug, but it keeps avoiding the baking tool. The fly goes overhead and out of reach of the pink pony.

Pinkie responds by throwing the mixer at it and misses. She throws whatever she could get her hooves on; a toy block, a sled, a nutcracker.

The fly heads down low and Pinkie looms over it with her hooves wide open. It sees this and suddenly two cymbals clap him like a sandwich.

It falls to the floor as Pinkie watches the pest bounce on the ground until it stopped.

She was panting with a grin on her face, but it soon began to fade.

She dropped the instruments and knelt down closer to the insect.

........it wasn't moving......

"What have I done!!!!!!!" Pinkie yells out in regret.

/carles-piles/nutcraker-arabian-dance

"No.... no no you're okay..........right?" she asks the fly.

It doesn't even twitch.

"Wait! I know what'll get you back up!" Pinkie zips downstairs and returns just as fast with a cupcake in her hoof. She places it down next to the fly and stands back.

.......................

She pushes the pastry closer to the bug.

.......................

The pink mare begins to panic, she didn't mean for this to happen, she just got caught up in the moment.

Pinkie paces back and forth, frantically trying to find a way to remedy this situation. As she walks under a light decoration, something clicks in her head. "I got it!" she yells and dives into the closet to pull out a wool sweater. The pink mare lifts up the woolly fabric and quickly wraps it over her head. She frantically rubs it all over herself and whips it off, showing a static frizzled mane.

"CLEAR!" yells Pinkie as she brings her hooves to the bug and a static shock is formed between the two of them. She leans in close, hoping that it jump-started it's heart.

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"CLEAR!" she tries again and waits in anticipation.

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It twitched.

"ITS ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!" the mare screams with joy to this miracle.

The fly's vision slowly begins to focus in it's surroundings. It spins around, seeing a pink pony jumping around with glee, but it's attentions lands on the cupcake next to it.

The insect flies on top of the frosting and Pinkie's stopped her celebration. She gave a forbidding look at it.

The fly turns around and notices her expression.

The atmosphere starts to feel frighteningly uncomfortable.

And...... Pinkie sit down next to the fly.

"Why don't we work something out."


/canonphilharmonicorchestra/the-nutcracker-op-71-xiv-waltz

Within a bedroom of the Sugarcubed Corner, a baby colt is playing with a toy mouse. He plays with it very roughly by swinging it around and punching it.

While this is happening, a fly is watching all of this from hanging on the wall. It heads out of the room and makes way to Pinkie Pie, currently making another set of treats. The insect makes buzzing sounds in front of the mare.

"Pound could use a punching bag?" She questioned the bugs suggestion, to which it confirmed, "He's becoming quite the aggressive one, isn't he."

The fly makes a few more buzzes.

"He is not becoming like his aunt Pinkie." she chuckles at the fly's remark. "Okay, so a punching bag for Pound, something for Mr. Cakes stamp collection, some fancy body shampoo for Mrs. Cake, and Pumpkin wants a stuffed penguin."

The bug buzzes.

"Great!" the mare spins happily, "All right, take your pick."

The fly spins in circles as well and finds something delectable. It land on it and eats its meal in peace.

It earned its meal for being a 'fly on the wall' at Pinkie's Hearth's Warming shopping list.