Team Sonic was at the Brighthouse bedroom, with Tails using a gizmo he made up to scan Chaos Energy around. He was looking out for the Chaos Emeralds Eggman had. With some luck, he could track down their location and attack him and Opaline without them even seeing the attack coming, but so far there was no sign of them.
"Still nothing, Tails?" Sonic asked with concern.
"No..." Tails replied with worry. "I can't believe Eggman found out a way to restore the Emeralds he has! Now he could not only power his machines with a non-dying battery, but also with Chaos Energy!" he pointed out with worry.
"I mean, it's also a good thing because we don't have to worry about restoring them anymore..." Knuckles tried to sound optimistic. "Yet again, is Eggman we're talking about, so..." he admitted with a frown.
"Thanks for trying anyway, Tails" Sonic said with a s honest smile. "Ever since I felt my connection with those two restored, I started to have a bad feeling... thank Chaos nothing bad has happened so far, but still..." he added with worry.
"Yeah... Eggman is always bad news, and a lot of things happened that same day" Tails pointed out. "Sparky went missing, the Metals were defeated once and for all, you got a big scar on your back, your connection with the Chaos Emeralds increased..." he listed.
"And, he got a private moment with Pipp" Knuckles added with a mocking smirk.
Just like he expected, Sonic blushed completely, but not for the reason he thought. Even if they've been trying to act normal and chill around each other, for the last 3 weeks, Sonic and Pipp have been avoiding each other because of the kiss that happened that day. None of them were mad, of course, but they just felt completely awkward when they're to close, specially when they are left alone.
None of the others knew about their sudden kiss, and its been almost two months since it happened, but everytime someone brings up that day, the fact that they were alone more precisely, they always avoided the subject and tried to came up with anything else. Why where they hiding it? They know the others will mock them for years if they could, so they wanted to keep it hidden as much as possible.
And right now, Sonic needed to avoid the subject. "N-Now just look at the time!" he said with a sheepish smile, looking at the watch on his hand. "T-The others need our help with the pumpkins, remember?" he said with a very nervous chuckle. "G-Gotta go fast!" he stated, boosting out of there before Tails or Knuckles could bomb at him with questions.
"... He does know these watches can't show the hour, right?" Knuckles questioned to Tails with a raised eyebrow.
"I believe so" Tails stated with a suspicious look.
At a hilltop, Sunny, Sparky, and Hitch were running from something as the two ponies, except for Sparky, screamed in panic.
"Ruuuuun! Pumpkin-lanche!" Sunny cried out as she and Hitch screamed while Sparky cheered as they ran down the hill with numbers of giant pumpkins rolling after them.
Sunny and Hitch turned back and saw the giant pumpkins closing in on them, making them scream at the sight as they ran faster down the hill. The pumpkins finally stopped, with some of them splatted around the hill, while Sunny and Hitch, with Sparky on his hooves, popped their heads up from the piles, having some pumpkin's guts on them as Sparky laughed a bit.
A little bit later, the Mane 5 and Team Sonic regroup as Izzy and Knuckles chased Sparky around to play while Zipp, Pipp, Hitch, Sunny, Sonic and Tails looked at the amounts of pumpkins.
"Good season for pumpkins this year. If anything, a bit too good" Hitch commented with a concerned tone.
Sonic, who was sitting over a pumpkin, groaned frustrated. "For once! Can we, like, for once not have any kind of problem? I don't care if it's magic related or Eggman related, just give me a brake already!" he screamed, smashing his head against the pumpkin he was sitting on.
"You didn't get your daily fill of chilidogs, did you?" Tails asked with a bored expression.
"No" Sonic replied.
"That's explains it all..." Tails said, facepalming with frustration.
"What do you even do with this many pumpkins?" Zipp asked, getting back on topic. "Any ideas?" she asked her sister next to her.
"I don’t know" Pipp answered. "But I can ask my followers" she said with a smile, twirling her phone before going on it.
Zipp raised an eyebrow at Pipp. "Any ideas... of your own?" she asked while giving Pipp a look.
Pipp stopped and frowned at her sister after what she heard. "Um, what’s that supposed to mean?" she asked with an offended look.
"You’re always asking the Pippsqueaks for help" Zipp answered, then she gave her a smirk. "Maybe you should try trusting yourself to come up with an idea once in a while" she added.
Pipp grew nervous at this, giving a nervous smile at Zipp. "Um… easy!" she said with a nervous chuckle. "I can think of one right now. Right now. And it’s coming up. Idea coming up. Any minute. Here we go!" she stammered, while Zipp rolled her eyes at her sister. "Aaaaaand, uhhhh…." she thought for a moment, but couldn’t think of anything, growing more nervous.
Sonic would try to cheer her up at a moment like this, but the simple idea of getting close to her after that made him back up completely, which didn't passed unnoticed by Tails, Sunny and Hitch.
"Guys, is it just me, or Sonic has been... avoiding Pipp lately?" Sunny asked to the other two.
"Oh, thank Chaos!" Tails exclaimed. "I was worried that I just got crazy or something, because he is avoiding her" he explained with concern.
"And not only him" Hitch added. "I've seen Pipp avoiding him as well" he said with worry.
Pipp, Sonic, Tails and Sunny were baking some of the treats they used for Nightmare Night, but as soon as Sonic and Pipp bumped into each other accidentally and looked at the other, their faces turned completely red, and they just kept going as if nothing happened at all.
Tails and Sunny watched that, and they both raised an eyebrow at the scene.
Then, Pipp was at Mane Melody doing Hitch's mane, while Rocky styled Sonic's hairstyle differently. But once Sonic stood up to leave, he crossed his sight with Pipp's again, and their faces became fully red... again.
"Nope!" Sonic said, immediately walking away from her.
"Neigh way!" Pipp said, also walking away from Sonic.
Hitch saw this and looked at them with concern and confusion.
And then, the Mane 5 and Team Sonic were all at the Brighthouse having a 'Just Prance' dance off battle, with both Sonic and Pipp winning over the rest.
However, once it was their turn for the grand finale, they once again blushed, but they couldn't just ignore each other as always, so they improvised.
"I-I need to see Jazz at Mane Melody!" Pipp shouted nervously.
"I need to finish playing Metroid Dread!" Sonic shouted at the same time.
Not waiting for a reply, they both ran out of the living room, leaving all the others very confused.
"Yeah, those two are definitely avoiding the other" Knuckles concluded, joining to the conversation soon enough, while he frowned at Sonic, who was just pretending to do something on a pumpkin as he avoided even look at Pipp.
Suddenly, Sparky sneezed and released one of his dragon fires, which hit a pumpkin and turn it into a carriage like from a certain fairy tale.
The others looked at it in awe, while Izzy picked Sparky up in her hooves and smiled. "Oh! Great idea, Sparky!" she said to the baby dragon, which made giggles in response. "Everypony loves a pumpkin carriage!" she added with a smile.
"Reminds me of certain fairy tale from back home" Tails commented with a smirk.
Hitch, however, thought otherwise. "Uh, except, as Maretime Bay Bylaw 927 clearly states, 'No vehicles can be made from vegetables'!" he said while reading through his rule book, earning weird looks from his friends, even Sparky. "What? I don’t make the laws" he said in defense of himself.
"Don't get me started on the 'No earth pony magic' rule you made on my first day as your deputy, Hitch" Knuckles warned with a bored expression, while Hitch just chuckled sheepishly.
What the others didn’t know, was that Pipp checked the pumpkin carriage as she flew around and went inside of it. Well, except for Sonic, who still looked at her no matter how hard he tried not to.
"Ooh! These pumpkins are super-luxe!" Pipp said, finding the inside of the pumpkin carriage amazing as she took out her phone to take selfies in the carriage.
Hitch then walked up to the carriage with the others, and Sparky, following him. "Luckily, Sparky can turn that carriage back, easy as pie" he said with a proud smile towards Sparky, while said baby dragon giggled while waving his paws.
"Of course!" Sunny announced, now having an idea thanks to what Hitch just said. "Let’s make these pumpkins into giant pies and have a pie-eating contest!" she announced, finding a great use of these pumpkins as her friends smiled at the idea.
"Sounds good to me" Sonic said with a smile. "After all we cannot use them as Hallow–– I mean, Nightmare Night decorations" he quickly corrected himself. "Sorry, still trying to get used to pony names for our festivities..." he confessed, scratching his head embarrassed.
Meanwhile, Pipp kept taking selfies in the pumpkin carriage, striking poses as she clicked on her phone to take the pictures.
"Ooh. Sounds like a piece of cake!" Izzy said, placing her hooves on her face with sparkling eyes. "Or a slice of pie. Either way, it sounds delicious!" she said with a smile as she, Sunny, Zipp and Team Sonic ran off to set up the contest.
Hitch picked up Sparky and aimed him at the pumpkin carriage, while Sparky released his dragon fire at it as it begins to change back to a regular pumpkin.
Pipp, who was still inside the pumpkin carriage, noticed the change. "Whoa! What’s happening!?" she asked herself startled, while the carriage started to turn back into a pumpkin. Then, Hitch ran off to catch up with the others with Sparky in his hooves. "Why is it all pumpkiny in here?" Pipp asked, trapped inside the pumpkin as the inside is now full of seeds and pumpkin guts with some on her and she tried to push her way out, but couldn't. "Hello?! Anyone?! Hello?!" Pipp called out to any of her friends if they could hear her, but got no response, and then she gasped with an idea. "My Pippsqueaks!" she said, taking out her phone to send a message to her Pippsqueaks to help her.
But before Pipp could even turn her phone on, she thought of what Zipp just told her. "You're always asking the Pippsqueaks for help…" the thought as Zipp’s voice echoed through her mind.
Pipp then gave a scowled look at that thought, looking back at her phone. "No, wait! I can do this myself" she said determined, putting her phone away. "Zipp is wrong. I don't always need my fans. I am perfectly capable of— Whooooaaaa!" she cried out as her pumpkin began to roll.
Outside the pumpkin, Hitch was rolling it as he started to whistle, not hearing Pipp's cries inside the pumpkin.
Later, at the Brighthouse, Izzy, and Tails were in the kitchen, making a bunch of pumpkin pies as Izzy started scattering and singing, tossing a spoon in the air as it landed in a bowl and she twirled around.
Then, the front doors opened as Hitch came in, looking a little out of breath from rolling the giant pumpkin. "That's the last one of 'em, guys" he told Izzy and Tails, while sweating a bit as he placed the pumpkin in place.
Tails then looked at the bot Izzy made, which is her 'Breakfast Bot' she kept. "Alright, Froggy McBakertons. Let's make some pies!" he announces to the bot, now name Froggy, as he starts to turn on and heads to the pumpkins, specifically to the one where she was currently trapped.
Later on, the Mane 5, sins Pipp, and Team Sonic, set up the pumpkin pie contest, with Jazz and Rufus sitting on the stage, while Sunny and Izzy stood at the side as ponies around them ate pies while chatting to each other. An earth pony even got bloated up by eating so many pies as he burped with ponies looking down at him strangely.
"This was a very good idea" Tails said with a smile as he ate a slice of pie. "By the way, where's Pipp?" he questioned.
"I don't know" Zipp said, being with him on a table. "I'm starting to get worried about her" she confessed.
"Hmm...." Tails muttered as he rubbed his chin, then looked at Sonic who ate his pie peacefully. "Hey, Sonic, can you look for her?" he asked with an analytical look.
Sonic spilled his pie away and looked at all places as he started to sweat. "I-I got to feed Floppy! BYE!" he shouted, running away from there.
"Okay, that's it!" Tails said with anger. "After the festival, we're interrogating those two and make them spill what the heck is wrong with them!" he stated.
"Agreed" Zipp said with a frown. "I'll get Sunny and Izzy to interrogate Pipp, you take Hitch and Knuckles to make Sonic speak as well" she instructed, with Tails nodding in agreement.
"It's the final round in Maretime Bay's first annual pie-eating contest! Just two ponies remain" Sunny called out to the crowd, pointing at Rufus and Jazz, the former doing some stretches while the latter was filing her hooves, with each having smirks on their faces. "Bring on the pies!" she announced.
Izzy then pulled a lever as the conveyor belt brought out two giant pies. "Mm-mmm! Freshly baked! Final pies of the day!" she announced, while the two pies came up in front of the contestants.
Inside Jazz's giant pie, Pipp, who surprisingly survived Botty’s cooking while being baked into a pie, heard Sunny’s announcement. "Ugh! I never thought I'd ever be in a pie-eating competition! And certainly not as the pie!" she squeals in worry, shaking her head in panic. "I gotta get out of here!" she cried out, tapping her hooves at the crust of the pie to break out, but it wouldn’t budge as some crumbs fell off. "Oh, no! It's a thick crust!" Pipp cried out, sweating nervously.
Outside the pie, Sunny got in front of the two contestants. "First pony to finish their pie wins! Ready..." Sunny said with a smirk as Rufus got into stand ready. "Set…" she kept going.
"Looks delicious" Jazz said with an exciting smile at her pie as she placed her hooves at her cheeks with sparkling eyes.
"... EAT!" Sunny announced, as Rufus and Jazz started to eat their pies.
Inside the pie, Pipp saw Jazz chomping through the crust and began to get even more nervous. "Jazz! No! Stop! DON'T EAT ME!" she called out through the pie as she groaned, startling Jazz as she stopped and backed away a bit.
Pipp then moved back and forth in the pie, while the ponies around saw this and grew nervous. Then, Pipp got her eyes through the holes Jazz chomp through and got her legs out from under the pie, making the ponies around to scream and run off, while Pipp jumped off the stand and began to run away.
"Uh, what is going on?" Hitch asked anypony in confusion and a little scared at their panic state until he saw something.
"What the heck?!" Knuckles cried out in shock at his side, as they both saw the ponies running in fright while Pipp stomped her way around the contest while making thudding sounds.
"Aah! Zombie pie! A 'zom-pie'!" Hitch cried out in shock and fright.
"... 'Zom-pie'? Seriously?" Knuckles questioned with a bored expression.
Posey then came out of a tent with a raised eyebrow. "Zom-pie?" she asked in confusion, having heard Hitch until she bumped into the Pie-trapped Pipp and looked in shock.
Pipp turned around as she felt the bump and saw Posey. "Posey? Is that you?" she asked through the pie.
Posey then screamed and pointed at Pipp. "ZOM-PIEEEEE!" she screamed out in fright, jumping on the table jumped and running away in fright, while Pipp crashed into the table as she gave chase.
Pipp followed a couple of ponies while hitting one of the pumpkins, breaking it in the process, then hit the balloons as they flew away. The ponies run around the contest while Rufus is still eating his giant pie and Izzy just looked around the place while Pipp, in the pie, continued to run around.
"Run! Run for your lives, everypony!" Hitch screamed in panic, although he wasn't not moving at all.
Zipp flew near to Hitch and gave him a strange look. "Uh, Hitch? You're not gonna get far on that, buddy" she said while pointing down at Hitch.
Hitch looked down at where Zipp was pointing at, seeing that he was on the conveyor belt as he kept running. "Oh, yeah! Good call!" he thanked Zipp for pointing that out, getting down and clearing his throat. "Run for your lives! Zombie pie!" he cried out as he ran off.
"Hitch! You're supposed to be the sheriff!" Knuckles yelled, following him. "Instead of running away, find a way to stop it!" he pointed out.
"Hitch! Knuckles! Wait up!" Pipp called out to them from in the pie, running past Zipp and following after Hitch and Knuckles.
"The pie knows our names!" Hitch cried out in fright as he ran faster.
"Stop acting like a baby!" Knuckles complained.
"Hey... I've seen that hooficure before…" Zipp said, seeing the hooficure style of the pie, then her eyes widened in realization. "Pipp?! That you?!" she asked out to the trapped pony in shock.
"Wait, Pipp?!" Sonic called out, arriving out of nowhere. "You're telling me that pie is Pipp?!" he questioned to Zipp with an anxious look.
"Apparently!" Zipp said with worry.
Not willing to hear anything else, Sonic ran off and followed Pipp at high speed, while kept chasing Hitch and Knuckles. Suddenly, she slipped on some pumpkin substance and then started rolling on the side of the pie. "Whoa-whoooaaaaa!" she cried out, starting to roll while Hitch screamed in fright as she was catching up to him and Knuckles.
"Knuckles!" Sonic's voice spoke from the watch. "Take Hitch out of the way! NOW!" he ordered.
Knuckles turned around and saw Sonic running behind Pipp with a determinate look, as the echidna smirked. "You don't have to tell me twice!" he replied, grabbing Hitch and ducking for cover from behind a table.
The ponies close to them screamed as they ran off to get out of the rolling pie's way as Pipp kept rolling. Then, the pie hit a tree, which made it stop and start to crack, as the crust then broke into pieces. Zipp and Sonic came next to the pie as Pipp got out of the crumble crust, looking really dizzy from the rolling and messy from the inside of the pie.
The ponies around, even Hitch, looked on in shock to realize that Pipp was inside that pie. "Whoa! Some entrance!" Izzy said with a cheery smile, thinking that was a great entrance.
Sonic pulled her out carefully, and then started to check her around, making Pipp blush completely. "Are you okay?! Did you got hurt in there?! How many fingers am I lifting?!" Sonic asked to her in a worried tone, not showing a slightest sign of embarrassment and lifting two fingers. Pipp couldn't say anything, so she only shook her head in 'no', while Sonic sighed in relief. "Thank Chaos you're not hurt..." he simply said, now smiling at her.
"Wait, you've been stuck in that pie?" Zipp asked her sister, as she approached to Sonic and Pipp, who shook the pie contents off her. "Why didn't you ask for help?" Zipp asked her with concern.
"Oh, I dunno" Pipp started as she gave a look at Zipp before turning her back to her. "Maybe because somepony thinks I'm always asking for help?" she sarcastically commented with a frown, while Sonic stood back to give the sisters some space.
"Ooooh. Ouch" Zipp cringed while placing a hoof at her chest. "Pipp, I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I didn't think—" she tried to apologize, but Pipp cut her off.
"It's okay Zipp" Pipp said to her sister before turning to her with a forgiving smile. "See? I got out by myself after all. With no help" she stated with a smirk.
Zipp chuckled at her sister with a smile. "Yeah, you did" she gave her sister a light punch on the shoulder at her effort. "No other pony could have ever pulled off an idea like that" she said as she gave a proud smile at her sister.
"Yup!" Pipp cheered as she sighed. "Big ideas are totally my thing" she added, gesturing to herself, which caused the sisters to laugh as their Cutie Marks started to shine.
Sonic couldn't help but chuckle as well at the sight. He still felt a bit uncomfortable around her, but he was totally glad she was okay, so at least he was going to try and talk to her as he used to before that happened, no matter how hard it could be.
Meanwhile, at the stage, Rufus finished eating the last piece of his giant pie, ignoring what just happened as he was focused on the contest. "And…" he then ate the last piece as he belched. "... finished" he said, rubbing his belly full from the giant pie.
Sunny got up a bit, looking a little dirty from the chaos Pipp made and looking dizzy. "Uh, I declare Rufus the winner of Maretime Bay's first... and last... pie-eating competition!" she declared Rufus the winner, then flopped on the floor, passing out as Pipp came next to her with worry.
"Huh?!" Jazz asked in shock at what Sunny said. "No fair! My pie escaped!" she cried out, while Pipp looked at her sheepishly before backing away, knowing she wasn't going to talk about this ever again.
After cleaning up the whole mess, the four mares of the group returned to the Crystal Brighthouse. Once Pipp, Sunny and Izzy where inside, Zipp immediately closed the doors of the Brighthouse and locked them.
"Huh?" the other three mares exclaimed confused.
Zipp made a sign with her hoof, indicating Sunny and Izzy to stood at her side. "Alright, Pipp. It's time to talk about the elephant in the room" she instructed.
"What elephant?" Izzy asked confused, while Sunny facehoofed and Zipp rolled her eyes.
"I'm with Izzy on this one, what elephant?" Pipp questioned.
"Pipp, we're not blind" Sunny said with a bored expression. "You've been avoiding Sonic, for weeks now" she explained.
That just made Pipp panic again, as she started to sweat a bit and blush.
"Can you please tell us what's going on with you two? Because Sonic is also avoiding you" Zipp pointed out with concern.
Pipp gulped, looking around to try and save herself from this, but she knew it wouldn't happen. "W-Well... t-the thing is..." she said nervously.
At the exact same time, Hitch, Tails and Knuckles where at the station doing the same questions to Sonic, who also blushed at the question of why he was avoiding Pipp, but he also looked at his friends with a bored expression.
"Pipp kissed me after she healed me the day Sparky disappeared" Sonic finally confessed.
For a few seconds, the other three just stared at him speechless. For a very short amount of seconds, that is.
"SHE DID WHAAAAAAAT?!" the three of them shouted on disbelief.
Sonic rolled his eyes at their attitude. "Go on, shout it more so everyone can hear us" he said sarcastically.
Tails then punched Knuckles on his stomach when the echidna opened his mouth. "Sorry, Knux, but I know you take this stuff way too literally" he told the echidna.
"Dude, that happened almost 2 months ago!" Hitch pointed out. "This is very big!" he added with a little smile.
"Why didn't you said anything?!" Knuckles questioned.
"Because you guys were going to mock me till dead with the matter, and Pipp never mentioned it, so I assumed we were both going to act like it never happened..." Sonic explained.
"You kissed him, Pipp!" Zipp cried out to her sister, since Pipp already told the whole thing too. "You cannot just pretend that it never happened and hope everything will still be the same!" she pointed out.
"Yeah, I realized that too late..." Pipp confessed with shame. "I mean, it was easy at first, we were still being the same..." she started to explain.
"But it got really awkward after a while..." Sonic also explained to the guys. "We could barely see each other at our eyes, and... we decided to avoid each other..." he finished.
"For a guy that loves to run towards his problems, I didn't expected you of all people to avoid a situation like this" Hitch said with a smirk.
Sonic looked at him with a bored expression. "If Sunny did the same to you, whatever intentions she could have by doing it aside, would you still look at her as usual? Could you barely see her at her eyes, or talk to her like you used to?" he questioned to him. Hitch blushed at the idea, but he also scratched his head, not knowing what to reply. "That's what I thought" Sonic said.
"Still, avoid the situation is going to make it worse" Sunny pointed out. "Hoping everything would be the same after a while won't work, Pipp" she added with concern.
"Sunny's right. If you want to solve this, talk to him" Zipp said. "Otherwise, you two are going to grow apart until you became complete strangers within each other..." she explained.
Pipp looked at them with sadness and worry. She wanted to talk with Sonic, yeah, but it was hard, and she wasn't so sure on how to do it exactly.
"Just... take your time if that's what you need, Pipp. But the sooner you clear this up with him, the better" Zipp told her with a smile, placing her hoof on her shoulder.
Pipp finally smiled after a while. "Thanks, girls... I... I will think about it" she promised.
"Man, I'm not an expert in love, but I know that avoiding her will make everything worse" Knuckles pointed out with a frown.
"And your relationship with her will decrease to a point that you don't even know each other anymore" Tails added with concern.
Sonic frowned at them, mainly because he knew they were right, but he still didn't wanted to hear it.
"Try to talk with her, okay?" Hitch suggested with a smile. "Clear this up so you two can stop acting so childish" he added with a mocking tone and a smirk.
Sonic looked at him with a bored expression, but eventually smirked as well. "I'll think about it, guys. And thank you, I think talking about this really helped me" he confessed.
"Anytime, dude" Tails said with a smile.
"But don't expect us to not mock you with this" Knuckles warned with a grin.
"Oh, shut it, Knucklehead" Sonic told him with a frown, walking out of the station, leaving the other three laughing.
However, Sonic himself smiled eventually, because he knew everything would work out well at the end.
THE END...?