At the Brighthouse, Sparky was setting up a heart shaped Wreath based on the fall season on the Brighthouse door, then Pipp suddenly opened the door in a quick pace and Sparky was knocked off balance and into a bush next to him.
"Alright, ponies!" Pipp called out in panic as she came inside the Brighthouse. "Mom’s gonna be here for Harvest & Hugs Day any minute" she pointed out, pulling out a pink paper clipboard. "We all set?" she asked with a serious expression. "Izzy! Tea!" she called out.
Izzy settled up her tea set on a flower stack with the tea pots stacked on top and the tea cups on the bottom in a great way. "Check!" Izzy said with a smile, as Knuckles stood at her side with his thumbs up and wearing a black smocking and sunglasses, since he was going to play the part of a butler.
"Carrot Cake!" Pipp called out the next thing.
"Check!" both Sunny and Tails called out, as Sunny hold the carrot cake while Tails was a bit covered in frosting, with the two friends smiling and wearing a pink and blue apron.
"Check…" Zipp said in a tired and dull tone, holding a spoon and a pink apron as well while Sunny smiled at her.
"You look adorable on that thing" Tails muttered and winked at her, which caused Zipp to blush and chuckle nervously.
"Ceremonial red carpet?!" Pipp called out again.
Hitch was setting the carpet in the right place with an eye-zoom-in lens to make sure it was at the perfect spot. "Check!" he answered with a smile.
"Totes emote harvest music?" Pipp asked as she brought out her phone as it played harvest music. "Check!" she said to herself with a smile. "Speakers?!" she called out once again.
Then, a blue blur suddenly passed by and Sonic appeared with a smirk, laying on a giant pink speakers that Pipp was asking for. "Check!" he called out with a wink.
Pipp smiled and blushed, then she got in front of Sparky, who got out of the bush and cleaned some dirt off him. "And Sparky, you have the honor of blowing this when Mom arrives" she said to Sparky as she gave him a trumpet.
Sparky smiled and inhaled, then blared at the trumpet, but his face got a little red as he flopped to the floor, out of breath from blowing too hard.
Pipp turned to the others and starting to panic even more, with her mane getting a little frazzled as she gave a panicked smile. "So just make sure everything's perfect, times it by a million, and then make it even more perfect than that! Okay, great!" she said nervously as she started to sweat and have a breakdown, while also biting on her hooves.
"Pipp, why are you so nervous?" Sunny asked in concern as she placed the carrot cake on the counter.
"It's just Queen Haven. She's been here a bunch of times" Tails pointed out with a smile.
"No offense for this, Zipp, but I can expect you getting nervous by just talking to her" Sonic said with a neutral expression. "However, I don't understand it from you, Little Pipp" he told her with concern as well.
Zipp then got in front of Sunny and Sonic with a nervous look while sweating. "Harvest and Hugs Day is, like, a weirdly big deal in Zephyr Heights, especially for Mom" she explained to her friends a bit worried.
Years ago, Filly Pipp was sleeping on her bed while sucking on her hoof, and then a shadowy figure came over her, which stirs her awake. "Huh? Aah!" she screamed startled once she saw who was over her.
Haven was smiling at her while holding a carrot cake in her hoof. "Who wants carrot cake?!" she asked her daughter excitedly as she presented about 10 three big stacks of carrot cakes all around Pipp’s room, as Filly Pipp looked around in shock.
After Zipp explained, Sunny, Tails and Sonic stared at her with anxious looks.
"Then I guess 'Mom gets very excited over a holiday' is a multiversal thing" Sonic said with a nervous smile.
"Like Longclaw used to do on Christmas?" Tails asked nervously.
"Yup" Sonic replied.
Pipp then got in front of her three friends as she gave a very panicked smile and reached her breaking point. "So it's got. To. Be. Perfect! Got it?!" she asked them with panic, startling Sunny and Tails.
Sonic, however, just rolled his eyes and approached her by patting her mane a bit. "There, there, Little Pipp. Remember to try and chill out! You can be nervous, of course, but is your Mom at the end of the day" he pointed out to her with a cheery smile. "Nothing bad is going to happen" he assured.
Spoke too soon, sadly.
Sparky blared the trumpet again, and accidentaly blew one of his dragon fires out through the trumpet.
Sparky’s dragon fire hit the red carpet, which caused it to burn up as the Mane 5 and Team Sonic watched in shock as the fire then went to the other end of the carpet and into the fall decorations that hang from the ceiling, while one ended up at the floor. The group still watched in shock as the fire spread to the rest of the decorations and burned them away, with a little piece of the fire falling on the stove, burning it up and breaking it. Another piece of the fire fell on the carrot cake, which burned it into dust.
The Mane 5 and Team Sonic stared at the carrot cake in shock and worry. Knuckles even lifted his sunglasses slowly as he looked anxiously at the burned cake.
"Uh... don't worry" Izzy said with a sheepish smile to try and ease the tension, as her friends looked at her. "At least we still got the tea…" she said as she pointed at her stacks of tea sets, which fell off and spilled and a little crack since the tea pots were too heavy, while the top pot tilted and spilled some tea out as Izzy looked on in shock, which the rest of her friends looking on with panic expression with wide eyes and Pipp left eye twitching. "Well, at least Queen Haven hasn't arrived yet. There's still time to—" she tried to say, but then the doorbell ringed, which meant that Haven arrived, making Izzy turn to the door while the others still looked on in panic.
Before Izzy spoke, again, Knuckles placed his index finger over her mouth and shushed her softly. "That's enough for a day, Izz" he told her with a bored expression.
"Well, we're just gonna have to... PANIC!" Pipp cried out in panic as she went into the living room and started to hyperventilate.
Sonic grew worried for her, but he needed to keep it cool for now so he approached her with a serious expression and made her look at him in the eyes.
"Now listen here, Pipp Petals" Sonic called out seriously. "This has a solution. We can still fix this mess, but by loosing your mind we can't go anywhere" he stated, then softened his look. "Now, breath in and out slowly" he requested.
Pipp nodded with a slight blush, and she started to slowly breath in and out to calm herself down, who worked after doing it for a while.
"Feeling better now?" Sonic asked her with his usual smile, as Pipp nodded at him. "Good, now: Zipp, you, Pipp and I will take care of your mom" he instructed, as she simply rolled her eyes at Sonic because of his 'protective side' over Pipp and his bossy attitude, as she walked pass Sonic and Pipp. "Sunny, think you can handle the rest with the others?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"S-Sure!" Sunny replied nervously. "L-Leave it to us!" she stated.
"It's fine!" Pipp said suddenly, panicking again. "Cakes are supposed to catch fire, right?!" she asked her friends with a panicked smile, before Zipp grabbed her sister and dragged her to the door. "I'm pretty sure that's trending right now!" she added as she started to whimper. "Does my mane smell like burnt carrot?" she asked to her sister and Sonic, starting to tear up.
"Pipp, it's not the end of the world" Sonic told her with a bored expression. "Is your mother, not the ruler of another country that wants to conquer us or something" he pointed out.
Zipp opened the doors as Haven appeared with her royal guards behind her as Haven smiled at her daughters. "Darlings! Happy Harvest and Hugs Day!" she cheered to her daughters happily.
Zipp and Pipp looked on nervously, as the two sisters closed the doors behind them, as they smiled nervously at their mother and sweated a bit, while Sonic looked at her with his usual smile.
"Welcome, Heen Quaven! Uh, I-I mean, Queen Ha— uh, Mom!" Pipp spattered nervously, as Zipp facehoofed at her sister’s attempt, Queen Haven looked confused and Sonic now forced his smile with a twitchy eye. "Um, lovely weather we're having!" Pipp said nervously, now approaching to her mother.
"Am I being filmed? Is this going on ClipTrot?" Haven asked with suspicion, while Pipp sweated even more.
Zipp grew nervous, and Sonic got forced his smile even more, as his electrical powers showed up a bit. However, he managed to relax a bit and smile normally again. "Your daughters are just very excited, Haven" he told her with a casual tone. "If they're acting like this, it's probably just that" he added.
Zipp just nodded eagerly at his side in agreement, sweating nervously herself. "Pssst!" Zipp heard someone, turning to see Sunny waving at her through the window, telling them they are good to come in.
Zipp then came to her mother with a sheepish smile, while Pipp was still panicking while biting her hoof. "Uh, right this way!" she said to her mother as they entered the Brighthouse.
"Wow. What a... unique spread" Haven said nervously, as she saw the Brighthouse with red paper to replace the carpet while there were drawings of pumpkins, leaves and the decorations.
Izzy kept pouring the tea in a cup on the table with a nervous smile as it overflowed, dripping off on the table, while Sunny was stirring the cake mix with a paper of the carrot cake in front of the bowl with Tails next to her as they smiled nervously at Haven, and Sparky held up the trumpet and inhaled to play it again, but Hitch panically snatched the trumpet from Sparky and tossed it away to make sure he didn't let out another dragon fire.
Sonic facepalmed after staring in disbelief at all of this. "Next time, I'm staying inside to fix it all at Sonic Speed" he muttered to himself, entering the place with a bored expression while following the Royal Family.
Haven walked to the throne that Pipp brought down to one end of the table as Hitch came to her with a smile. "Your Royal Hoofness!" he said as he presented the throne to Haven.
"Oh. Thank you" Haven thanked Hitch with a smile as she sat on the throne.
"Now, we have an exquisite array of classic Harvest and Hugs Day tea blends freshly prepared by our master tea-smith Izzy!" Hitch said as he brought Izzy next to him, who was smiling nervously along with Hitch.
Haven gasped happily at them. "Do you have elderberry bushel blast?! It's a Zephyr Heights classic!" she said with her hooves on her cheeks.
"Well, we certainly didn't destroy it all in a fire before you got here!" Hitch said as he gave a nervous laugh, before gettin a punch on the head. "Ah!" he cried out, seeing Knuckles 'passing by' with a serious expression as he moved his head in negation, while Hitch just laughed nervously.
Izzy gave the same laugh. "Elderberry bushel blast comin' up!" she said as she zipped away to the kitchen. Izzy arrived to a pot in front of her and muttered, placing some stuff in the pot, not knowing what elderberry bushel blasts are made of, so she just has to improvise. "Little of this... Little bit of this... Um, okay, that'll work…" she muttered nervously.
Haven saw Izzy and gave a confused look. "Is that a... new recipe?" she asked with a nervous smile.
"No new recipes" Tails called out with a nervous smile as he mixed the cake.
"Yeah. Just good old-fashioned, age-tested tradition!" Sunny added as she was shredding some carrots, but in her haste, she accidentally tossed what’s left of the carrot she was shredding as it flew into the air, which made her grow worried.
Hitch, who was carrying the tea Izzy made, didn't saw the the carrot piece Sunny tossed falling in front of him, which made him slip on it from one of his hooves. "Aah! Whoa!" he cried out, but as he tried to gain balance, the contents of the tea Izzy made spilled out of the pot as it splattered all over the kitchen. Izzy screamed as she ducked for cover of the incoming contents, Haven ducked when some came close to her when it hit the throne seat. Hitch kept screaming as he slipped and flopped to the table with the tea Izzy made spilled out from it as Haven cringed at it. "Just how you like it! Right?" he asked nervously.
"I'm gonna have a heart attack if things keep going this badly" Sonic muttered as he sat on the stairs and stared at the others with an anxious look.
"Please don't say that" Pipp begged, sitting at his side as she kept biting on her hooves.
At the kitchen, Sunny, Tails and Zipp smiled as Sunny held up the carrot cake batter. "Carrot cake 2.0 ready to go into the... broken oven. Ugh!" she groaned, having forgotten that Sparky’s fire broke the oven so they can’t use that. "How are we gonna bake a cake without an oven?" she asked the others.
"I could try and fix it with my powers, but it can take a while since I need a lot of energy to repair something with them, not build from scratch" Tails pointed out with worry.
Zipp gave a nervous look as she groaned. "Hold on tight. I might have something..." she said embarrassedly to the others.
A little bit later, Zipp returned with a small pink oven as she gave an embarrassed look to Sunny and Tails.
"You have a Bakey-Boo Oven?!" Sunny asked in a cute tone as she smiled with sparkling eyes, remembering she had one as well when she was a filly.
"Aww! I didn't knew this side of you, Zipp" Tails said in a mocking tone.
"I used to make Harvest and Hugs Day fairy cakes, okay?" Zipp explained quickly in embarrassment to the two, while Tails gave off a smirk at Zipp while Sunny still smiled with sparkling eyes. "I was a filly. I'm not proud of it" she added with a raised eyebrow as she placed her old filly oven on the counter next to them.
"Awww, I think it's sweet!" Sunny said in a cute tone while Tails kept smirking, and Zipp still felt embarrassed. "All right, let's do this!" Sunny declared as she now got serious.
Zipp opened her old oven as Sunny placed it inside and closed it to set it on '5:0' while it began to bake.
"Mmmm!" Haven’s voice was heard, which startled the trio as they turned and saw her behind them. "That carrot cake smells divine!" she said with a smile, while Pipp and Sonic appeared behind her with panicked expressions as Pipp bitted her hooves.
Sunny, Tails and Zipp tried to block her view of the oven to make sure she doesn’t see the unfinished cake. "Well, Zipp taught us the family recipe, so it should be... delicious?" Sunny said nervously as she, Tails and Zipp looked on nervously and they began to sweat.
Pipp kept biting her hooves nervously, then Sonic whispered something at her ear, which made her look at him and nod, as they zipped off and grabbed Pipp's giant music speaker, placing it next to Sparky. Pipp then brought out her phone as she played a bluegrass music, but she didn’t realized how loud it was until it played. Pipp jumped startled, which even startled Sparky from the loud sound as he tries to cover his ears, and Sonic curled into a ball to hide from the sound.
Sunny, Zipp, Tails and Haven turned and saw how Pipp landed on Sparky’s tail, which made the baby dragon scream in pain as he released one of his dragon fires in the process, while Pipp gave an apology look at Sparky.
Izzy ducked from Sparky's dragon fire, but the tea she made was tossed into the air as it landed on Sunny’s face. She tried to get it off, but she tripped and opened Zipp's oven, which caused the carrot cake it was baking to spit out and hit on Haven’s face.
The Mane 5 and Team Sonic looked in shock and panic while Pipp, Sonic, Tails and Hitch screamed as well.
Pipp got next to her mother and got the cake off her face, who had wide eyes at what happened. "We're so sorry, Mom!" she cried out, letting her tears go as Haven looked at her daughter. "We had everything prepared, but then it caught fire, and the tea exploded, and the cake dissolved, and now we've ruined your favorite holiday!" she cried out quickly.
Haven gave her daughter a sympathetic look. "Pipp, my dear, calm down. You've not 'ruined' anything" she said to Pipp.
Pipp calmed down as she turned to her mother. "Well, you're wearing the traditional carrot cake as a face mask, so we're not exactly winning" she pointed out with concern, and still crying.
Haven wiped the contents off her face as she looked at Pipp. "You think I like Harvest and Hugs Day just because of a cake?" she asked her daughter with a smile.
Pipp thought of what her mother just asked. "Um... kinda?" she answered unsure.
"Well, it is delicious, but no" Haven said with a smile, as the Mane 5 and Team Sonic gathered around and listened to Haven. "Look, when I was growing up, Harvest and Hugs Day was one of the few days a year we managed to get all the family together" she stated, as she brought up an old picture of herself when she was young, sitting on the table while her family gathered around her with their Harvest & Hugs Day feast on the table. Zipp came close to her mother and sister as she and Pipp smiled. "That's why I love it so much. Because we were always together" she added as she hugged her daughters close to her. "We could be eating mud pie and worm stew for all I care" she jokingly said with a smile.
"Now, that I can do!" Izzy cheered with a smirk while picking at the weird tea she made.
"Don’t you even think about it, Izzy" Knuckles warned with a bored expression.
"Come on, ponies" Haven called out to the others. "Let's get whatever food we can find, throw it on the table, and make some precious memories together" she declared as the others smiled at her idea.
Izzy set a bowl of pinecones on the table.
Pipp was passing the plates to her mother as they smiled to each other.
Sunny, Tails and Zipp baked a loaf of bread on Zipp's oven as they smiled at their accomplishment.
Knuckles decided to bake a grape pie he learned to do with Amy a while ago.
Once the table was set, the Mane 5 and team Sonic were enjoying their meal while Haven watched them with a smile.
Then, Sparky came behind Haven as he giggled at her with a smile.
Haven smiled back at the baby dragon next to her. "Sparky, could you do the honors and get this feast underway?" she asked the baby dragon as she gave him the trumpet.
Sparky smiled as he grabbed the trumpet and took a deep breath to blow the trumpet.
The others saw this, and started to panic again. "No, no, no, nooooo!" they all cried out in unison and panic, since this was something Sparky shouldn’t do after his last attempt with the trumpet.
After Haven left, Sonic and Pipp decided to stay behind to clean up the place, while the others leave them alone to see if they will finally talk about the thing.
"Thank Chaos that Sparky's dragon fire didn't caused any more trouble" Sonic commented, as he cleaned up the fridge from the spilled tea.
"Agreed" Pipp replied, as she cleaned up on of the kitchen walls. She then took a deep breath before turning to Sonic. "Hey, um... thanks for helping me out earlier, when I was panicking a lot" she said with a smile.
Sonic turned to her and smiled back. "Anytime, Little Pipp" he said.
Before they came to a silence again, Sonic took a deep breath himself and approached to Pipp, laying on the clean part of the wall she was cleaning.
"So, are we going to talk about the elephant in the room already or not?" Sonic asked with his eyes closed and a serious tone.
Pipp stopped and panicked again, although she managed to stay under control by the moment. "W-What elephant?" she asked nervously.
Sonic looked at her with a bored expression and a raised eyebrow. "That you kissed me?" he pointed out.
Pipp blushed and gulped at the mention of that. "O-Oh..." she replied nervously. "W-Well... I-I don't know..." she said unsure.
"Come on, Little Pipp. We're both adults here" Sonic pointed out with a neutral expression. "We cannot just ignore this and hope everything will be fine at the end" he pointed out.
"I-I know..." Pipp confessed, now sitting on the ground with a worried expression, as Sonic sat at her side and looked at her expectantly. "Look, the way we were both acting that day almost made us kiss at first glance, a-and then Tails interrupted, so I j-just decided to kiss you anyway... Why? I... I don't know... I guess I just went with the flow at the moment and... I-Im sorry for doing it, Sonic..." she said with a few tears on her eyes.
"Pipp, I'm not mad" Sonic said with a soft smile. "It took off my guard, yeah, but I didn't dislike it. I guess I wanted to give you some space and time after that, but eventually... I got uncomfortable myself" he explained with guilty. "Then again, ignore this won't solve anything. I just want to talk, laugh and chill with you, the same way we always did... but I guess that kiss made things really uncomfortable for both of us" he pointed out.
"I admit, I also miss talking with you the same way we used to" Pipp said with a genuine smile.
"Then let's just do it!" Sonic said with a smile. "We don't have to ignore that we kissed, but we don't need to act so dramatic over it either, right?" he added with a playful tone, while Pipp giggled at him. "Besides..." he started again, standing up along Pipp and giving her his back. "I'm always up for a round two" he finished with a smirk.
That comment made Pipp's face turn completely red as she frowned. "SONIC!" she scolded him, as Sonic bursted out laughing loudly and ran away to finish up cleaning. Pipp rolled her eyes, but smiled as well. "Please never change, Blue Star" she muttered with a blush, resuming her clean up as well.
THE END