All the earth ponies were gathering around and decorating Maretime Bay for Winter Wishday, their special holiday.

The nights are getting longer
And there's a chill in the air
And you feel a bit of magic
Ohh, everywhere

Hitch was getting out of the station along Knuckles and Sparky, all of them wearing winter gear, with Hitch using a blue sea hat with jingle bells, Sparky using a purple one with some spikes on the top and jingle bells as well, and Knuckles wearing a green hat with emeralds around. Also, Sparky was carrying some kind of letter on his arms.

So come on everypony,
Time to spread the cheer
Yeah! There's dancing
And there's prancing
Around the Wishing Tree

As sheriff, deputy and dragon walked down the street and greeted some ponies, wishing them a happy Winter Wishday, they saw Posey and Jazz using their magic to make a threshold grow around the entrance of Mane Melody, with Rocky winking an eye to them and placing a white ribbon with green stripes in the middle.

And a little bit of sparkle
For you and me
No I just can't wait
Till it's Wishentine's day

As they kept walking, they saw a few ponies sharing some cups with hot chocolate.

It's that twinkle in the eye
Of every Pegasi
And that feeling when you listen
To the bells outside

Some old earth pony mares passed by with holiday crowns and placed them on the bridge, with Sprout helping out by using his earth pony magic to grow some flowers on the crowns.

The glisten of the snow
That's fallen in your mane
Yeah, come on everypony
Don't you feel the same
Every moment, every sound
Every feeling, sing it loud

Nearby, Seashell used her earth pony magic to make some white flowers grew un a bucket.

Suddenly, a snowdrop fell into one of the flowers, which made Seashell smile and look up, just to find that there was snowing. She immediately moved to meet Glory and Peach Fizz, who were jumping excited at the fact that i was snowing in Maretime Bay.

They were excited because Maretime Bay was a beach town, so it never snowed in there before.

No I know, No I know
No I just can't wait, I can't
No I just can't wait
Till it's Wishentine's Day

As for Hitch, Sparky and Knuckles, they finally made their way back to the Crystal Brighthouse.

Inside, Sunny was hearing to a song by using Pipp's modern record player, as well as she sang a different thing while baking some cookies. She was also wearing a green winter hat with stars.

"We whisk you some tasty cookies. We whisk you some frosted goodies. We wish you a yummy Wishday, and a happy new moon" Sunny sang, as she moved and danced around the kitchen while baking the cookies.

In the meantime, Zipp and Pipp were on the couch, practicing a song for their presentation in Zephyr Heights.

Zipp sighed a bit before starting to 'sing' off-key. "Mee-mee-mee-mee..." she said in a dead tone.

"You're a little pitchy, Zipp" Pipp told her with a sheepish smile. "I mean, this is The Zephyr Heights Wishentine Royal Carousel Concert!" she pointed out excited.

"Ugh! If it takes an hour to say the name, the show's probably going to last for a week!" Zipp complained.

"Even more reason to practice!" Pipp said with a smile. "From the top!" she instructed.

However, they both got startled when they heard Izzy mumbling and complaining from the closet.

"Just a little closer, and I can get these..." Izzy said, but then the box she was trying to get down a stand feel in her, and the decorations inside the box fell, although none of them broke strangely. "... ornaments!" Izzy said cheerfully, taking the box off her head.

In the Critter Corner, Hitch was with his animal crew and Sparky as he held on his hooves a note from his grandmother.

"It's from my Grandma Figgy!" Hitch said excited, but then McSnips made a weird comment as the birds started to laugh. "Not Piggy, ya wise-crab! Figgy!" Hitch corrected a bit mad, showing him a picture of his grandmother, while McSnips made more clicking sounds. "Very funny. Anyway, Figgy writes: 'My dearest grandcolt...' That's me! 'I can't wait to see you on Winter Wishday! We're going to have so much fun building the best cookie cottages! Love, your gran.' Oh!" he said, as he hugged the letter with warm. "Isn't she the best Grandma in the whole world?" he asked to his animal crew and Sparky.

However, Kenneth replied by making chirping sounds... and what he said wasn't anything that Hitch liked to hear.

"Oh, you think your Grandma us better?" Hitch asked with a frown, which made Kenneth make more chirping sound with a nervous expression. "That's what I thought" he stated, while the critters and Sparky just laughed at him.

In the bedroom, Sonic sat at the edge of his bed, staring at a box he had on his knees.

He never told anyone except Tails about this, but he conserved Longclaw's scarf after he found it burned. Ever since that, he decided to take it with him wherever he goes. He hide it on his quills, and never took it out... until the day he decorated his room in the Brighthouse.

He buy a box to put the scarf there and repare it every now and then. Last week, he finished it, and now he was afraid to feel sadness, and only sadness, if he opened that box to see the scarf of his mother figure.

"Sonic..." Tails voice called out to him. "You know that it's okay if you don't want to––" he tried to say, but Sonic raised a hand so he could stop talking.

"I want to, lil' bro" Sonic said. "I'm just... afraid that the memory will hurt" he confessed with a bit of concern.

Finally, Sonic opened the box, and surprisingly, he smiled softly at the sight of the brown scarf with yellow and blue stripes at both ends.

"Wow" Tails said with a nostalgic smile. "Is like if it never got burned" he said.

"I owe it to her" Sonic said. "Is the last thing we have. The least I could do was restoring it... and it's finally ready" he added, holding the scarf close to his chest.

"We're going to use for the tree decoration we always have like every year, right?" Tails asked, as Sonic gave him the scarf so he could give a hug to it as well.

"Yup. And this year would be more special because the scarf is now repaired" Sonic said with a smile. "Also, did you got the letter?" he asked.

Tails took out a green envelope, with the texts 'To Longclaw' and 'From your sons' written on the front.

"Right" Sonic said, side hugging the fox with a smile. "And it's going to be as special as every year, Tails. You just wait and see" he assured, receiving a smile from Tails.

"Where the heck did I putted that thing?!" Knuckles cried out, as he made a bit of a mess on his side of the bedroom.

Sonic and Tails stared at him for a minute, then looked at each other and shrugged. Sonic putted the scarf back on its box, then held it on his arm and walked along Tails towards Knuckles.

"I found the flag with my tribe's symbol on it that Izzy help me to make, but I can't find the shaft!" Knuckles cried out.

Sonic and Tails looked at each other with bored expressions before turning to Knuckles again. "You mean, the one that's at the side of your bed?" Sonic asked.

Knuckles looked over where Sonic was talking about, and he indeed saw the shaft he was looking for, lying at the side of the bed.

"Clean up, Knucklehead" Sonic instructed, as he and Tails walked towards the exit of the bedroom. "Sunny probably finished the cookies already" he added.

In the living room, the whole group was sitting and talking to each other, when Sunny arrived with cookies having the form of everyone's head, so each one grabbed their respective cookie.

"We whisk you some tasty cookies. We whisk you some frosted goodies. We wish you a yummy Wishday, and a happy new moon" Sunny sang again, then giggled a bit. "Okay, okay. If I keep it in any longer, I'm going to explode!" she exclaimed excited.

"Hit the deck, everypony!" Zipp said jokingly a she ducked and covered herself with her wings with a laugh.

However, the critters didn't took it as a joke at all, and hided around the living room.

"Winter Wishday is just around the corner and of course, I can't wait to spend it with all of you!" Sunny started to explain excited. "I have the perfect holiday planned for us, and it all ends with my favorite part: exchanging gifts under the Wishing Star! Eee! There, I said it!" she exclaimed excited, chomping a part of her cookie.

"Ooh..." Izzy exclaimed with worry, not so sure on how to say what she wants to without hurting Sunny's feelings.

Sonic just whistled innocently as he ignored Sunny, while Tails at his side cough with a worried expression.

Zipp and Pipp looked at each other with worried expressions, not sure on how to say what they need to.

"Well, it's just that I promised my Grandma Figgy I'd celebrate Winter Wishday with her" Hitch explained. "Like we always do!" he added with a smile.

"And I have to ring in the last night of Wishiehoof in Bridlewood with my hoofmade ornament!" Izzy explained as well, lifting a box with her ornament inside of it. "It's Jinxie if I miss that!" she added with concern.

"I need to find the perfect spot to place the Echidna Tribe Warrior Flag" Knuckles explained, as he stood up and held the flag in a standing position. The flag was fully red, and it had the draw of an echidna in the middle with two gloves like Knuckles' on each side of the drawing. "It's a tradition my ancestors established to pay our respects to our fallen brothers and sisters. Every echidna has to follow this tradition during the eve of Christmas, no exceptions" he added with a serious expression.

"Tails and I still need to find a tree to decorate it in memory of Longclaw" Sonic explained. "We got her scarf fixed for the occasion, even" he added.

"After that, we will sent a letter for her in a floating lantern" Tails said as well. "It's been our tradition ever since she left, so we do all of this to honor her favorite holiday of the year" he added.

"And we have to be home for the..." Pipp started to explain, looking at her sister with a smile.

"Zephyr Heights Wishentine Royal Carousel Concert" Zipp said with a bored expression.

"Wooweee, that takes a long time to say" Izzy said, appearing suddenly at the sisters' side.

"Yeah, I doubt we'll barely have time to be together this holidays" Sonic added with concern.

"No!" Sunny shouted suddenly. "I mean, sorry, yes, we do all have plans, but I think we can still make this happen" she explained with confidence.

"We'll stick together! That's how!" Sunny started to explain. "We can definitely get to all of our holiday traditions and still make it back here in time to exchange gifts under the Wishing Star!" she explained.

"Ugh! Love that for us, but Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood are quite the journey" Pipp pointed out.

"I mean, the idea is good, but... as Pipp said, there's a long distance to travel" Sonic agreed with the young pegasus. "It took us two days going from Maretime Bay to Zephyr Heights when we first met, remember? And don't get me started on going from the mountains to Bridlewood..." he added with an anxious look.

"Well, Sonic, Knuckles and I can travel long distances in the blink of an eye, specially Sonic, but as for the rest... the two love birds have a point" Tails said with concern, while Sonic and Pipp stared at him with bored expressions.

"If he says another 'love birds' bullshit like that, we'll riot" Sonic muttered to Pipp with a smirk.

Suddenly, they all noticed the snow outside of the Brighthouse, as they all walked towards the window to appreciate it better.

"Huh. That's strange" Sunny said confused. "It never snows here in Maretime Bay Like ever!" she pointed out. "Right, Hitch?" she asked him with a smile.

"Nope. But I have been wishing for snow ever since I was little!" Hitch replied with a smile.

"Me too!" Sunny confessed. "But... how are we going to get to Bridlewood and Zephyr Heights in this?" she questioned.

"Well, that's too bad" Tails started to make an act. "If only we could all fly on something to get there..." he added, now smirking and looking to Zipp and Izzy with a knowing look.

Zipp sat on the floor as she took out her phone and looked at something on it, showing it to both Izzy and Tails, who nodded at her in agreement.

Once Sparky heard Sunny saying that, he started to move excited, rolling backwards on a ball and landing in front of Izzy, who grabbed the baby dragon with a smile.

"It could be the perfect snow-lution to our pickle!" Izzy said with a cheery smile.

"It was supposed to wait until Wishday, but... Oh, alright!" Zipp added with a little jump.

However, instead of answering, Izzy got suddenly lost as she stared at the ceiling with a weird look, until she realized everyone was staring at her.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I zoned out there for a second!" Izzy said with a sheepish smile, as she putted Sparky down. "Follow me!" she instructed, with Tails and Zipp flying at her side.

Outside of the Brighthouse, Izzy, Zipp and Tails stood at the side of something covered by a blue blanket, while the rest just looked at them curiously. Izzy also brought Sunny's lantern for some reason.

"Ta-da!" Izzy said, as she retired the blanket to reveal... the tram car Izzy found a while ago, now turned in some kind of flying vehicle... or an attempt of one, to say the least.

"Okay, so it still needs a little work. But pretty great, right?!" Zipp asked with a smile.

"Uh-huh..." Sonic said with a strange look. "When did you guys made this?" Sonic asked curiously.

"A day before my birthday" Tails said, landing at Sonic's side. "It was... quite a ride, to tell the truth, but it totally works!" he assured.

"Sorry, but I have to ask it..." Knuckles said, staring at the tram car confused. "What is that thing?!" he finally asked.

"Well, originally, it was that old, broken tram car I found behind the factory, then it was a giant art installation, then Zipp, Tails and I had the brilliant idea to Unicycle it from art to... Moving art!" Izzy explained.

"Izzy suggested the idea of finding a way to show you guys how cool it feels to fly" Tails explained. "So, Zipp and I gave her a hand and we made this!" he added excited.

"We can use it to travel to our hometown holiday celebrations, and make it back here to the Brighthouse in time to see the Wishing Star together!" Izzy stated with a cheery smile.

However, the others were not really convinced, specially Hitch and Knuckles, who were staring at the 'lights' of the tram car.

"No offense, guys... but this thing can barely hold together..." Knuckles pointed out. "I doubt it even moves" he added.

"Of course it flies, Knucklehead" Tails said with a confident smirk. "The only missing thing is a tiny, little spark of magic!" he added, pulling out Sunny's lantern and placing it over the drivers seat inside the tram car.

"Uh... Izzy? How did you named it when we tried out the other day?" Tails asked her.

"Hmm..." Izzy said, thinking on how she named the vehicle before almost shout it. "The Marestream!" she stated with a serious expression. "I mean, that's an option I was thinking of, we totally don't have to use it or whatever" she added with a nervous chuckle.

"Marestream..." Sonic repeated with a thinking look. "Ooh, I like the name! It's really catchy" he confessed with a smile.

"You're forgetting the most important thing here, Zippy" Tails said with a smirk, while Zipp blushed slightly from Tails calling her like that. "The magic touch" he said, pointing at Sunny's lamp on the driver's seat.

"Oh, right" Zipp said with a nervous chuckle, still blushing and turning to Sunny. "Thanks for letting me keep an eye on your lantern, Sunny" she thanked with a smile.

"I know it's in good hooves with detective Zipp!" Sunny said with a smile as well. "Have you discovered anything new about its magic yet?" she asked.

"Exactly!" Sunny said, as she squealed excited again and got between Hitch and Pipp. "I can't wait to see the Wishing Star with my best friends!" she added with excitement.

As the rest sins Team Sonic laughed, their Cutie Marks started to shine and gave their power to Sunny's lamp. After the lamp received all of their power, the rainbow light inside of it grew bigger and covered the entire tram car, restoring it to transform it into the motor vehicle it turned the first time the lamp did the same thing.

"There it is!" Tails said casually. "We told you that this thing worked" he added with a smirk.

"You guys could have presented us this instead of the tram car!" Sonic pointed out with a smile.

"But the fun of the surprise could have been ruined, silly!" Izzy said with a cheery smile.

The Mane 5 and Team Sonic entered the now advanced Marestream: it had some passenger sofas, a small kitchen, and a door that lead to the drivers place, that somehow was bigger, and had 8 spots, probably the seats for each one of the group.

"So let me get this straight: the lamp is basically the key for this thing to work?" Sonic said with a bored expression.

"That lamp is just a big deus ex machina" Knuckles said with the same bored expression than Sonic.

"Whoa!" Hitch exclaimed, as he got close to a tablet, which he tapped and turned on, making the entire Marestream turn on as well, as it lifted up from the ground a few seconds before Izzy tapped the same button that Hitch pressed, causing the Marestream to land. "Do you have a driver's license for this vehicle?" Hitch asked.

As Hitch stared at it, reading it and making sure everything was in order, he got a bit surprised that the name 'Tails' wasn't on the license. Sunny, who felt surprised that Tails had an actual license, got close to read as well, and also got surprised when she found that his name wasn't on the license.

"Uh, yes?" Tails replied confused, seeing it as something very obvious. "Tails is just a nickname because..." he lifted his tails with a bored expression.

"Sonic literally presented him as Miles Prower, even specifying that 'Tails' is just a nickname" Zipp pointed out. "Didn't you guys payed attention or something?"

"Please tell me you didn't thought my name was 'Tails the Fox' or something, because the 'name based on your body or your special ability, followed by your species as your last name' thing only applies to Sonic and Knuckles..." Tails said, still with a bored expression. "And Shadow... and Rouge... and Cream... and Mighty... Ray... Big... Vector... Charmy... Espio... Silver... Blaze... now that I think about it, I'm the only one with an actual last name..." he pointed out with an anxious look.

"Dude, he literally just named half of our friends from back home" Sonic pointed out with a bored expression. "Who could have he missed?" he asked.

"If we finished talking about my name, can you give me my license so we can leave?" Tails asked, still with an anxious look.

"Oh, right..." Hitch said with a sheepish smile, hanging the driver license back to Tails.

"Then it's settled!" Sunny stated with a smile. "First thing in the morning, we'll head out to Equestria and make it back to the Brighthouse in time to see the Wishing Star! Come on! There's so much to do to get ready!" she cheered.

The others cheered as well, as they got out of the Marestream to get everything ready for their trip tomorrow.

"You shouldn't overpack, Little Pipp" Sonic suggested. "We're leaving for an entire day, not a month or something" he pointed out.

"Should we bring weapons or something?" Knuckles asked. "You know, in case of a situation?" he pointed out.

"What kind of situation will requiere weapons, Knucklehead?" Sonic asked with a bored expression.

"Let me be more specific: should we bring weapons, in case of an Eggman situation?" Knuckles corrected himself.

"Old Egghead haven't given a sign of being alive for the last few months" Sonic pointed out with a confident smirk. "He's probably still crying over the fact that we destroyed his 'precious creations' for the gazillion time. Relax, Knucklehead, is holiday season!" he added. "What's the worst that could happen?" he asked with confidence.

Back at Opaline's Castle, Eggman was at his new hidden lab, tapping a lot on his computer, as some machines got both Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy caged to repair them completely.

"It took me a while to finally got the proper upgrades, but now they're finally here!" Eggman stated with a grin.

He finally tapped the enter button, that finished up the repairing process, as the two robots were pulled out of their capsules and carefully placed on the ground.

"Why, hello there, my Metals! Good morning, and welcome back to the world!" Eggman greeted with an evil grin.

"Doctor..." Metal Hitch said, looking at his body in awe. "Now look at this! We look even better than when you created us!" he cheered.

"It's your reward for being the only useful machines I've got so far!" Eggman stated. "You may saw your mission as something useless, but thanks to the crystals that you brought me, I got Chaos Energy back on my control!" he explained with a smile. "It's thanks to you that I'm a step closer to defeat that pity hedgehog and his friends once and for all! For it, giving you this upgrade is your reward" he reminded.

Both Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy stared at Eggman on disbelief, and in Metal Izzy's cade, with happiness.

"However... you must prove to me that you're worth of this upgrades" Eggman stated. "And I got the perfect mission to do so!" he added with a grin, pressing a button on his computer turning on the live camera of his robotic bird. "Sonic and his gang of fools are traveling around Equestria tomorrow. I need you both to follow and report their every move" he instructed. "Don't attack them, no matter the circumstances, unless you want to end up like your 'brother and sisters'..." he added.

"Take it for granted, daddy!" Metal Izzy said cheerfully, turning her rockets on and flying off the lab.

Metal Hitch repeated the action and decided to follow her, while Eggman looked back at his computer.

"The power of the Wishing Star can grant me my biggest wish: take control over the world! I don't care if it's Mobius or Equestria, the Eggman Empire will finally rise!" Eggman stated with confidence. "Of course, Opaline can't find out about this... we're still in not good terms after what happened a few months ago. But it won't matter. Soon enough, I'll be ruling over this world. And if the Wishing Star can't grant my wish... well, then it won't grant a wish for anyone, ever again!" he said with an evil grin.

And then, the doctor started to laugh maniacally, feeling like he already won the battle...

The next morning, the gang was getting all of their bags and baggages ready for their trip.

Sunny just packed some essential things, while Hitch packed some toys for Sparky on one baggage, with Sparky himself jumping over another one of the bags.

Meanwhile, Tails was inside the Marestream with Zipp, as they both were making down the route they'll take to travel around Equestria.

Outside of the Marestream, Pipp was pushing a lot of bags that she planned to take for the trip. However, Izzy nodded in negation, while Sonic just facepalmed, since this was the exact opposite of what he told her to do.

Finally, the whole group got inside of the Marestream, with Tails now wearing an orange variation of Santa Claus' hat, orange gloves and orange socks, and also yellow sunglasses to indicate he was the captain who will fly the Marestream.

Zipp and Pipp were both wearing some big invernal hats, Izzy was wearing a flower crown with tree branches as reindeer horns and Sonic was using an invernal variation of his shoes, closed red gloves with white palms and white winter glasses on his forehead.

Sparky made some chattering sounds, as Tails nodded at him with a smile. Sparky then jumped over the tablet and pressed the icon of a wing, that turned the Marestream on and prepare it to fly off.

"Alright, everybody. Hold onto your hooves/hands or whatever you have" Tails announced with a smile. "Magic check?" he asked.

Tails nodded with a determinate expression, before smiling and look in front with a determinate look. "Take off!" he announced with a smirk.

The Marestream finally took flight, as it lifted from the ground and started to fly around the Brighthouse, then boosting towards the clouds as it left a rainbow trial behind.

As he looked out of the window, Sonic whistled at the view. "Not the first time I fly on some vehicle, but it is the first time I appreciate the views on and inside perspective" he confessed with a smile.

"Hello, dear passengers, and welcome to the Marestream" Tails said with a joking tone. "This is your Captain speaking. We are at a cruising altitude of... I don't actually know, and traveling at the speed of... magic! The current time is... this thing doesn't have a clock, and my watch isn't a watch all, but it's definitely morning!" he stated.

"No way. What told you that? The crushing sun in the horizon?" Knuckles muttered with a bored expression.

Sonic, the only one who apparently listened to him, punched him on his shoulder as he gave him a frown.

"We have an estimated arrival at Grandma Figgy's cottage at approximately pretty soon" Tails announced.

"The seatbelt sign is, well, we don't have one, but if we did, it would be off and you'd all be free to move around the cabin" Tails instructed.

"We should search for the 'seats on' button, but I'm not bothering on doing it myself..." Sonic said with a neutral expression.

"Last time I pressed or pulled something I didn't knew what was supposed to do, you ended up moving around the entire Throne Room while being attached to strings" Sonic reminded her with a bored expression. "Ever since, I haven't pressed or touched anything without knowing what it does" he added with concern.

"Oh... right... right..." Pipp said, as she tapped her mouth a bit with her hoof.

"Now, for a brief announcement from a member of our flight team" Tails instructed, as he looked to Izzy behind him.

"Hello. This is your friendly in-flight entertainment coordinator, Izzy Moonbow, and I'm here to say that it's time for a good old-fashioned singalong! Okay?!" Izzy instructed with big confidence and a smile.

"Ooh! Yes! Yes!" Pipp cheered excited, as Sonic at her side chuckled a bit from her attitude.

"And uh-one, and uh-two, uh-one-two-three!" Izzy counted down, before starting to sing. "Over the crystals, and through the woods. To Grandmare's tree we go" she sang.

"Earth ponies play" Sunny and Hitch sang together as well... at the exact same time than the sisters, which caused them to realize how off-key was that.

"I don't know! I guess we all know the same basic melody at least!" Pipp said with a sheepish smile.

"Whatever it was, it sounded really off-tone" Sonic complained, as he scratched his left ear. "Should we do an encore or something?" he questioned.

"Each ponykind must have a different version of the lyrics!" Sunny guessed with a smile.

"Fun! Okay, let's take it again, but alternate verses this time! Hit it, Sparky!" Pipp cheered with excitement.

Sparky giggled before using his crab plush as a countdown for the singalong to begin again, with the Mane 5 harmonizing.

Pipp and Zipp:
Over the mountains
And through the clouds

Mane 5:
To Grandmare's house we go

Pipp:
Earth Ponies play

Pipp and Zipp:
To whinny and neigh

Mane 5:
Through peppermint candy snow
Oh, oh, oh, oh

As the Mane 5 sang, Tails moved the Marestream to the rhythm of the song, despite not singing along.

Pipp:
Oh, when we get closer
To Grandmare's house

Sunny:
The pretty lights let us know

Pipp and Sunny:
And soon we'll see

Mane 5:
A special pony
Through her icing frosted windows
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh

However, as the Mane 5 kept singing, Tails realized that something was in the middle of the clouds... and then he noticed what was it: two pegasi, flying in the air, too focused on their phones to even notice the Marestream.

Soon enough, he made a loop movement in the air to dodge the pegasi, as they looked in shock while rest screamed because of the sudden move, except for Sonic, who was used to this kind of stuff already.

Tails moved the Marestream and stopped at the side of the pegasi. He opened the window and took off his glasses to glare at the ponies. "Eyes on the sky and not your screens, fillies!" he said with a frown, putting back his glasses and closing the window.

After that, Tails moved the Marestream away and started to make some horizontal loops, until he finally stopped and landed in front of Grandma Figgy's house.

"Dude, what the heck?!" Sonic scolded as well. He was used to this stuff, yes, but he knew that the others were not. "As far as I know, I only teach you the basics of piloting! And maybe do some dangerous loops, but not something like that!" he added with a frown.

Tails took off his glasses and looked at Sonic with a bored expression. "The speed we reached didn't allowed me to make a proper landing, so I had to improvise" he said on his defense.

However, as Team Sonic discussed among them, Hitch noticed something different on his grandma's house.

"Trees?!" Hitch cried out with genuine worry. "Those weren't there before!" he said.

"But it doesn't even look like Grandma Figgy's house now!" Hitch said with disappointment.

"He do knows things change, right?" Knuckles whispered to Sunny at his side, who only shrugged at him.

"Hey Sonic" Pipp called out, as she and the hedgehog stood a bit behind. "You mentioned that you teach Tails how to fly. Could you, uh, explain a bit?" she asked with a slight blush.

"Well, I didn't teach him to fly with his tails, you know. He already did that when we met" Sonic explained with a smile. "He got interested on a plane I have back home called 'the Tornado', so I teach him how to pilot it" he added.

Sonic stopped for a second, as a hurtful look got on him for a brief moment, but then he shook his head and kept walking.

"Sorry for that..." Sonic said. "Got caught off guard by your question, Little Pipp. Longclaw gave me the Tornado, as a gift for for saving the critters of South Island, my home. She taught me on how to pilot it" he explained with a nostalgic smile.

"Sorry" Pipp apologized with a guilty expression. "I shouldn't have asked..." she said with concern.

"It's okay, Little Pipp" Sonic assured her with a smile. "As long as your memory remains, you really never die. Longclaw told me that once, and its what I've been doing with Tails every year: keep her memory alive" he added. "It hurts, yeah, but it's the only way I can still feel her with me" he finished with a sad smile.

Pipp was the one who stopped suddenly now, and Sonic looked at her with curiosity.

"Sonic..." Pipp said. "Do you... cry her dead? Even after all this time?" she asked with a worried expression.

Sonic felt surprised by the sudden question, as his ears lowered down and he looked a bit sad now.

"... Yeah..." Sonic confessed. "I mean, I already kinda accepted that she's gone, but still... it's hard to let her go at all" he added. "You know? That time at Zephyr Heights, when I cried over your fur... it was the first time someone that isn't Tails saw me crying" he revealed. "I... I'm not the kind of guy who likes to deal with emotions in public, so... I rather reserve them for myself" he finished, now looking at the ground with sadness and a bit of shame.

"Then don't!" Pipp said with concern. She moved towards Sonic and stood only on her hind legs, placing a hoof on Sonic's chest and the other one on his cheek. "Look, if you ever need to let your emotions flow, then count on me to look after you, to hear you. You can always trust me, okay?" she told him with a smile.

Sonic smiled back at her and placed a hand over her cheek. "I know, Little Pipp. And don't worry, if I ever need to free myself, I know who to look for" he assured her, caressing her cheek as Pipp blushed a bit.

Pipp finished up kissing Sonic in his cheek, and then they both moved towards the cottage, surprised that the rest hadn't made it to it at all, nor entered the place.

"What is it now, Hitch? We can't waste any time!" Sunny pointed out with worry, taking out her phone and checking at a diagram of the Wishing Star, slowly moving towards above of the Brighthouse. "We're on kind of a tight schedule today" she pointed out.

"I know, I know..." Hitch said. "I just wanted to warn you all first. Look: my Grandma Figgy is great. She's probably the best Gran of all time!" he explained with a proud smile.

"Yeah! She's the best, but she can be kinda... um, particular about Winter Wishday" Hitch warned a bit concerned.

"You're being just a little vague here" Zipp pointed out with a smirk, while Tails at her side nodded in agreement.

"We celebrate Winter Wishday together every single moon the exact same way!" Hitch started to explain. "Her favorite holiday activity is building Cookie Cottages with me and it's always been that way since I was a little foal. It's a big, big deal to her! It's gotta be perfect!" he pointed out. "So just, keep that in mind. That's all" he finished with a smile.

"Oh, that's all?" Sunny questioned with a smile and a raised eyebrow. "Of course we'll honor her earth pony traditions, just like she likes" she assured.

"Yeah, silly! We're going to be great guests!" Pipp reassured with a smile, flapping her wings excited.

"It will be pretty uncool if we didn't respect her traditions, so don't worry, pal" Knuckles said with a smile.

"Thanks, everypony. I know it'll mean a lot to Grandma Figgy" Hitch assured to them, as he walked towards the door.

"We agree that he's the perfectionist and his grandma just plays along, right?" Tails whispered to Zipp at his side with a smirk.

Once Hitch finally knocked the door, it opened to reveal Grandma Figgy, a pink mare with even more pink glasses, gray hair and a purple scarf with pink lines.

"Granny!" Hitch greeted back with a smile, as he gave her a big hug. "Cheery Wishday!" he told her, still with a smile.

"Oh, it sure is!" Figgy said. "And what a treat to have Hitchie's friends here, too!" she added, taking a look at his friends behind him, with Pipp waving her hoof and Tails waving his hand. "Oh, and this little adorable little sweetheart, of course. Oh, come to granny!" she finished, grabbing Sparky and nuzzling her cheek with the baby dragon's head.

"T-Thanks f-for h-having us!" Sunny said with a smile, as she, the girls and Tails were shivering from the cold and sudden snow that kept growing.

Knuckles wasn't shivering because he was trained to resist low temperatures in order to protect the Master Emerald back on Angel Island, while Sonic was used to the weather since he lived in snowy mountains for a while with Longclaw before moving to Green Hills.

"Oh, goodness, you must be cold!" Figgy said with worry. "I haven't seen snow like this since, well... Never!" she confessed. "Come in, come in and we'll warm those hoovesies right up" she said, moving away to let the rest inside of her cottage.

With some classic holidays music playing on a record player, the group followed Hitch to a small table, where they all sat down on some pillows around said table, that also had a plate with marshmallows.

"Who wants some hot cocoa?" Figgy asked with a smile, walking towards the group with a plate that had 9 cups of hot cocoa.

"Ah, ba, ba, ba!" Hitch said, suddenly, grabbing three marshmallows from the plate and grabbing the plate with hot cocoa. "Hold up! Three jumbo marshmallows per mug, no more, no less. Right, Granny?" he asked with a smirk.

"That's right, Hitchie" Figgy replied with a smile. "Enough to stick out of the top..." she tried to add.

Hitch then placed three marshmallows on one of the cups and took it. He blew it a bit before giving to Sparky, as he also placed the plate with coca on the table, next to the plate with marshmallows.

The rest grabbed cups as well, also putting only three marshmallows to respect Figgy's tradition.

Izzy was the first one to slurp a bit from the cocoa, and then she gasped. "This is scrumptious!" she said with a smile and sparkling eyes.

Pipp was the next one. "Mmm! Super delish!" she exclaimed with a smile. "And I love the decorations! So festive!" she added.

"She puts up them up every Wishday! They look exactly the same as when I was a colt" Hitch said with a smile, that faded away and turned into a frown when he looked outside of the window. "Except for all those trees out front. That's different" he said a bit mad.

"I grew 'em with my very own glowin' hooves with this newfangled earth pony magic" Figgy replied with pride, as she used her magic to make some white flowers grow on a plant nearby. "Pretty nifty stuff!" she added with a smile. "Oh, I do love to change things up, every chance I get, don't you?" she asked to the rest. "It can be so boring to do the same thing over and over" she pointed out.

"Hold that thought" Hitch said as he stood up. "I'm going to grab some napkins" he stated, then walked off.

"Guess I was right. He's the perfectionist one here..." Tails said with a smirk, slurping a bit from his cocoa soon after.

"I couldn't agree more, Figgy!" Izzy said with a cheery smile to the old mare. "Now, what would you say to another cup of cocoa with four marshmallows?" she asked excited. Figgy simply laughed and placed a fourth marshmallow in Izzy's cup, while the unicorn slurped a bit. "Oh! Ah!" she exclaimed with a bright smile.

"Um, ma'am?" Knuckles called out. "Would it be too much if I ask for a refill? I kinda... got too excited with the cocoa..." he asked with an embarrassed smile, as he showed up that he already finished his cocoa.

"And then you complain about me being impulsive" Sonic said with a smile, as the rest, Knuckles included, just laughed at his joke.

A bit later, the Mane 5 and Team Sonic were seating around Figgy, who was sitting on her couch and holding an album with photos.

Zipp suddenly gasped as she saw something on the album. "Look at his tiny sheriff costume!" she said with a slight high voice.

"It was all he wanted that Wishday" Figgy said with a smile. "I sewed it by hoof. Oh, the badge too!" she explained.

The picture they were looking at showed Hitch when he was a colt in front of the door, wearing a smaller version of his current sheriff hat and some kind of purple scarf with golden wings around his neck.

Sonic and Knuckles could fight the urge of laughing at the picture, both to not make Hitch feel humiliated and to be proper guests to Figgy.

"Normally, this would be embarrassing, but it's a Wishday tradition" Hitch whispered to Knuckles at his side, who was holding Sparky on his knees and looking at Hitch confused. "Granny would be upset if we didn't do it" he said with worry.

"Yeah, sure..." Knuckles said, rolling his eyes in disbelief since Hitch was the one who wanted to do the exact same thing every year, not his Granny, although he didn't seemed to realize yet.

Figgy moved on to another page, now showing a picture with both Sunny and Hitch when they were younger, with Figgy and Argyle behind them, all smiling to the camera and standing in front of a fire in the lighthouse, back when it was still a lighthouse before Sprout destroyed it.

"I remember that Wishday!" Sunny said with a smile. "You and Hitch came over to watch the Wishing Star. We both wished for snow and thought it worked, but it was just my Dad blowing bubble suds from the top of the lighthouse!" she explained with a nostalgic smile, now placing a hoof over the picture.

"You foals wanted a snowy Wishday, so Argyle made it happen" Figgy explained with a smile, placing her hoof over Sunny's.

"It seems like Figgy and Argyle could see the connection between this two love birds" Tails whispered to Sonic with a teasing tone.

"Wouldn't be surprised if Figgy messed with Hitch liking Sunny when he was a colt" Sonic replied with a smirk and a low chuckle.

"Oh, it's very nice you're continuing you and your dad's tradition with all your friends. He would love to see it" Figgy assured, making Sunny a bit sad now. "But look!" she said, as she placed a hoof around Sunny's neck and pointed to the window with the other one. "Your wish finally came true!" she pointed out with a smile.

"So it really has never snowed in Maretime Bay before?" Zipp asked out of curiosity.

"Oh no, not in my pony life" Figgy replied. "It's a beach town, after all. But snow was always in the best holiday stories!" she said with a smile. "My favorite from when I was a filly was called 'Fantastical Flurrytales of Wishiehoof'" she confessed.

"Wishiehoof?! That's our unicorn holiday!" Izzy said with a smile. Figgy stood up from her couch and moved towards a stand, then grabbed a book from it and returned to the couch. Before open the book, she blow some dust from it. "Oh! That looks like the Wishing Tree!" Izzy pointed out to the cover image of the book.

"Do you mind if I take a closer look?" Zipp asked. Figgy didn't hesitated and gave the book to Zipp, who grabbed it and analyzed the picture a bit. "Hmm..." she muttered.

"Okay! Enough of storytime!" Hitch said suddenly. "Everypony to the Cookie Cottage Crafting Creation Corner!" he stated with a smile.

Hitch sighed before standing up. "The kitchen" he replied a bit mad, now walking towards the kitchen.

"Be glad your Grandma is here, or I would have smacked your head already" Knuckles muttered with a bored expression.

As the others walked away, Zipp placed the book on Figgy's couch, then looked at the snow out of the window, having a bad feeling about the sudden snow.

"A beach town that never had snow before gets sudden and exaggerated amounts of it out of nowhere..." Tails voice spoke, as he stood at Zipp's side. "Sounds like a mystery for Detective Zipp!" he added with a smile.

"W-What? N-No, no, no, no!" Zipp said with a sheepish smile and a blush. "I-I was just looking out t-to make sure the Marestream is safe! T-That's all!" she tried to lie.

"Come on, Zippy" Tails said in a mocking tone with a smirk. "You never said 'no' to a good mystery! Gotta admit that I feel intrigued myself" he confessed, now with a regular smile.

As Zipp managed to get her blush under control, she smirked to Tails and raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you the guy who said that I should stop questioning everything?" she pointed out.

"Yeah, well... I was stressed back then..." Tails confessed with a guilty look. "I recently opened Electronic Tails in the moment, and I felt the urge to let out some of that stress... and I wrongly let it out over you... I'm really sorry for that Zipp" he apologized.

"Hey, it's okay, little buddy" Zipp assured with a smile, nuzzling her cheek with his. "I kinda got overboard back then, and I also treated a new friend horribly, so I kinda deserve it" she said.

"Still, I shouldn't have vented my anger on you" Tails said before chuckling a bit. "It's very hypocritical that I now feel curious over something when I said that some mysteries should remain like that" he pointed out with shame.

"Well, I wouldn't mind to find out this mystery with a partner" Zipp said, blushing slightly again as she placed a wing around Tails.

"Of course! You said you wanted to make it to me, remember? Take this as that chance, Miles" Zipp replied with a smirk, as she walked away and used her tails to hit Tails hat, which ended up covering his sight.

As Tails putted his hat back on place, he couldn't help but stare at Zipp shaking her tail as she walked towards the kitchen. He suddenly felt his entire face turning red, so he moved his sight and even covered his face with a hand. W-What the heck?! he thought a bit panicked. W-Why did I just saw that?! I-I mean, yeah, Zipp can be pretty sometimes, and she's really smart too... B-But everyone else thinks that! ... R-Right? he wondered.

He felt his heart racing like if he just participated on a marathon, and he had to breath a bit before finally calming down. He didn't noticed, thought, that Zipp was looking at him sideways with a smirk and a slight blush as well.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Hitch already gathered everything they needed to create the Cookie Cottages.

"Uh... Can we start?" Izzy asked, since she loved everything that was related to craft things, and also trying to grab one of the glazed bags on the table.

"No, wait! I almost forgot!" Hitch said, suddenly stopping Izzy. "I need to find the cute miniature lights to string up on the houses!" he exclaimed. "We can't start before I find the cute miniature lights to string up on the houses!" he stated, walking towards some kind of closet, while Sparky and Figgy looked at each other confused. "Gran, where are the cute miniature lights we string up on the houses?" he asked.

"Maybe we can do them without the lights this time?" Figgy suggested, actually not minding start the Cookie Cottage crafting without the lights.

"I see a Wishday box but, not a Wishday Lights box, so..." Hitch said, still looking for the lights.

The others looked at each other in disbelief, while Knuckles just facepalmed and groaned in annoyance.

At that moment, Tails arrived and sat down next to Sonic, but he was lost on his thoughts.

"Well, you were right after all, little buddy" Sonic said with a smirk. However, when he got no response, he looked over to his little brother, who was still lost on his own things. "Uh, Tails?" he called out with concern.

"Huh?" Tails replied, finally getting out of his trance. "Oh, sorry, I was just... thinking..." he said.

"Okay?" Sonic replied, not very convinced since Tails was never this distracted, but he decided to let it slip for now.

"Got 'em! Saved the day again!" Hitch cheered with a smile. "Thank hoofness, right, Grandma?" he asked to her.

"Thank hoofness" Figgy replied, playin along with Hitch, then turning to see the others. "When it comes to Wishday, Hitchie has to have everything just so" she whispered to them with a teasing tone.

"Now, it's cottage time!" Hitch said, arriving with the box of lights on his hoof, while the others just laughed at him, which confused him a lot.

After a while, the group created the cottage's, based on places that were important for them.

Hitch created the same cottage of every year: his Grandma's house. Sparky tried to place the last part, the fireplace, but since he was going to place it on the wrong place, Hitch moved his hand to the other side with a nervous smile.

Izzy created her old home, La Villa Izzy, placing a heart in one of the candies she used to create the tree.

Sunny made the Crystal Brighthouse, since it has been always her home even before being the Brighthouse, also placing the detail of the Wishing Star above the building.

Pipp, on the other hoof, made a replica of Mane Melody, not only including the sign at the side of the building, but also adding figures of Rocky and Jazz in front of the place.

Zipp made a classic Cookie Cottage, just adding her Cutie Mark at both sides... and also a chomped ceiling, since she couldn't help but taste the cottage a little.

Sonic decided to make a small replica of Green Hills, with a loop, a bridge, a star panel, some rings and plants with critters around, also placing figures of himself and some badniks.

Tails recreated his workshop, located on Green Hills as well, placing a figure of himself and a replica of the Tornado in front of the workshop.

Finally, Knuckles recreated the Master Emerald and its pedestal, since he actually didn't had a ceiling at all back home, but it didn't bothered him, because he created the pedestal with a proud smile.

Figgy approached with a camera, and looked at Hitch laughing with Sparky, which made her smile.

Zipp, however, noticed that the album was open and took a glance at it, just to cringe a bit when she saw that Hitch always made the exact same cottage. Always.

Figgy took a picture of Hitch and Sparky with the cottage, and placed the picture among the other ones where he was with the cottage.

The group looked at each others cottages and complemented each other for their work, while Figgy also took a glance to all the cottages with a smile.

"Fantastic! This is the best batch of cottages I've ever seen!" Figgy said with a smile, and then she approached Zipp after she heard her chomping part of her cottage. "They must taste as good as they look!" she added with a laugh.

Suddenly, Sparky moved around the table and chomped a little piece of chocolate, then burped a small flame of his dragon fire, that ended up hitting a teapot and turned it into a star plushie.

Of course, Hitch overreacted at that as always. "Oh no, Gran! Your Wishday teapot!" he cried out in worry.

"That old thing? Oh, it's okay––" Figgy tried to assure, but Hitch took that way too personal.

"Okay?! But it's special!" Hitch pointed out in panic. "We've been drinking tea out of that teapot since before I could trot!" he stated, still in panic.

"That's it" Knuckles said, charging up his electrical powers with his eyes turning red. "I'm going to––" he tried to say, but then Sonic got in front of him as he carried Izzy.

"Look at Izzy's face, Knucklehead!" Sonic said in panic, as Izzy just smiled cutely at Knuckles. "Look. At. Her face!" he repeated.

Knuckles stared at Izzy for a few seconds, then his electrical powers disappeared and his eyes became pink again, then he let out a big sigh of relief.

"Your very welcome, Knuckie!" Izzy replied, nuzzling a bit with the echidna, which made him blush a bit.

"That means it's definitely time for a new one, then" Figgy told Hitch with a smile, while the two of them were completely unaware of what happened with Knuckles, Sonic and Izzy.

Then, she grabbed the star plushie and gave it to Sparky, who purred a bit as he hugged the gift from his great-grandmother.

Sunny, however, realized something. "Time? Oh yeah, time!" she said suddenly, looking at the diagram of the Wishing Star moving a bit closer to the Brighthouse. "Uh, Grandma Figgy, this was a fantastic way to kick off our gran holiday tour, but if we want to hit all of our stops, we've gotta get move on!" she stated with a sheepish smile, walking towards the exit of the house.

As Team Sonic and the mares of the group got out of the house, Figgy stopped Hitch as he walked out as well.

"Ah! Granny!" Hitch complained a bit blushed, as Figgy kissed his cheek and took Sparky to kiss his too.

Izzy, on the other hand, noticed the 8 cottages that the whole group made up placed on the window of the house, now with the tiny lights Hitch insisted to look after.

"It's not a true cookie cottage without any lights" Hitch said with a smile, approaching to the window with his Grandma.

"A shining reminder of our perfect Winter Wishday tradition! Haha!" Figgy said with a smile.

"Well, I know how you like everything to be just so, Grandma" Hitch said with a smirk.

"Yes Hitchie" Figgy said, immediately turning to the rest and winking an eye to them, since she was just playing along.

The mares and Tails giggled, while Sonic facepalmed and Knuckles just rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you're very welcome, everypony!" Figgy said, smiling back. "My word, it's really coming down out here, huh?" she said a bit surprised by the amount of snow that kept falling.

As Figgy was about to go back inside her house, Hitch stopped her and gave her a hug, which Figgy returned with a smile.

They got back inside the Marestream, with Tails once again taking control on the drivers seat. Izzy pressed the wing button on the tablet, making the vehicle turn on again and lift off the ground.

Figgy waved her hoof from the cottage as she held a cup of hot cocoa with the other hoof. As the Marestream got out of sight, Figgy placed a fourth marshmallow on her cocoa and slurped it.

The Marestream reached enough high, and Tails made it boost back to the sky, once again leaving a rainbow trial behind.

Once they were back in the skies, Tails putted on his sunglasses again, while Zipp at his side kept analyzing the book from the inside.

"Me too!" Pipp said with a smile as well. "Grandma Figgy is the sweetest!" she added.

"Yes, she is" Hitch assured with pride. "Even if she is pretty particular about traditions" he added with a smirk.

Knuckles 'passed by' and smacked Hitch in the head, since he was heading to the inside of the vehicle to get something.

"Ow! Hey!" Hitch complained, scratching his head while Sparky on his back laughed at him.

"There was something on your hat" Knuckles lied, smirking as he finally got to give Hitch the smack he wanted.

"Yeah, your grandma is so set in her ways!" Zipp said with a smirk and a roll eye, while Tails at her side chuckled a bit.

"Okay. So I know we spent a little longer there than we planned, but we'll definitely still make it back to the Brighthouse to see the Wishing Star together" Sunny stated with a smile.

"We will if I have anything to say about it!" Tails stated with a confident smile. "Full speed ahead!" he said, pressing a button that made the Marestream fly a bit faster, just to stop soon afterwards. "Okay, same speed ahed, I guess. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool" he said with a small smile.

"First, I have to place my ornament on the Wishing Tree" Izzy explained on whispers and a relaxed tone. "And then it's the final day of the Wishiehoof Crystal Lighting Ceremony!" she added with excitement.

"And I love ceremonies!" Hitch said with a smile, but then the others stared at him blankly, even Tails stopped focusing on the road to look at the sheriff with his sunglasses down and a raised eyebrow. "What? I do" Hitch assured with a confused look towards his friends.

"Well, now that we're hitting the ground, I finally have the chance to look after the perfect spot to the Echidna Tribe Warrior Flag" Knuckles said, arriving again with said flag on his hand.

"Say, Knuckles. What's this tradition of yours with the flag?" Sunny asked curiously.

"The Echidna Tribe disappeared 20 years ago" Knuckles said. "I'm the last of my kind, but I learned all the traditions of my people before they met their doom. Our tradition for Christmas is place this Flag in a quiet area, and then make a small prayer only known by my people. After that, their spirits should show up and give you a reward" he explained.

"It changes every year: sometimes is a dance ritual to congratulate your accomplishments in the year, sometimes is some wisdom advice, and sometimes is a small peek to the future" Knuckles explained. "Only I can see it since I'm the echidna of the group, you know" he added with a little smile. "Is the only way I get to talk with my blood relatives, so it's an obligatory tradition" he finished.

Suddenly, Izzy remembered something, and she went over to Zipp's and Tails' side. "Oh, oh, oh! Can we pop by Villa Izzy first?" she asked with a smile. "I have to grab, uh, something..." she added with a nervous smile.

"It'll only take two shakes of a pony's tail!" Izzy assured, actually shaking her tails, then she moved to Sunny. "That means not very long" she whispered to her with a smile and a wink.

"Heh... Of course, Izzy..." Sunny said with a nervous smile, since she was very worried that this would waste some time that won't allow them to reach the Brighthouse and miss the Wishing Star.

"Cheer up, Sunny" Tails told her with a smile. "It won't take long to get to Bridlewood!" he stated with confidence.

After saying that, he redirected the Marestream to Izzy's house in Bridlewood, and the vehicle now moved towards said location.

Once they made it to Bridlewood, the Marestream landed in front of Izzy's house, and the whole gang sins Tails and Zipp followed Izzy out of the Marestream, as said unicorn hummed excitedly to herself.

Tails stayed behind to turn off the vehicle completely. However, he couldn't help but notice that Zipp was staring at the book she borrowed from grandma Figgy with a concerned look.

"Still thinking about the weird amount of snow in Maretime Bay?" Tails asked to her with worry.

"Yeah..." Zipp confessed. "Something's definitely off, but I can't still figure out what it is..." she said with concern.

"Zipp, we'll figure it out, together" Tails told her with a determinate look. "We just need to find more clues right?" he questioned with a little smile.

Zipp looked at him blushing, but then smirked and looked at him with a flirty look. "Look at that, Mr. Prower. You've got the detective side after all!" she joked on a teasing tone, again moving her tail over Tails face.

Tails face got as red as Knuckles', and he gulped a bit before chuckling nervously. "I-I-I'm just s-saying that we should f-find more evidence! Yeah! That's all!" he said nervously.

Zipp giggled from Tails attitude, and then she grabbed a saddle bag that had her Cutie Mark, then putted the book in there to take it along just in case.

Finally, the whole group got out of the Marestream as Izzy jumped excited towards her cottage.

Meanwhile, the others stayed behind to wait for her and stared at the snow falling from the sky.

"Wow, that's a lot more than a few flakes!" Pipp exclaimed, as she then got her tongue out to let some flakes fell into her mouth.

"Pipp! Move away!" Sonic shouted suddenly, launching himself towards her and moving her aside in time before the mountain of snow fell into her.

However, Knuckles walked out of the Marestream in the moment Sonic moved Pipp aside, so the mountain of snow fell into him.

On the other hand, Sonic stood aside and chuckled a bit at Knuckles receiving the snow instead of Pipp. He was carrying her on bridal style, so she felt a bit embarrassed as she blushed.

"Heh, sorry for that, Little Pipp" Sonic apologized with a sheepish smile and a blush as well.

"I-It's okay!" Pipp replied nervously. "I-I'm fine thanks to you, so..." she pointed out.

As Sonic putted Pipp down carefully, Knuckles got out of the mountain of snow and spitted some out of his mouth with a bored expression. "Well, I usually get this treatment on Ice Cap Zone back home... and I surely didn't missed it at all" he said in annoyance.

But as Pipp giggled at Knuckles' current situation and Sonic shook his head, he suddenly felt someone's sight, so he turned to some trees at the distance, finding nothing.

Unknown for him, Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy were hiding behind a tree, hoping that Sonic didn't noticed any of them.

"Doctor, Sonic and the rest are here" Metal Hitch instructed. "What should we do?" he asked.

"Stuck to the plan and don't attack them" Eggman instructed. "The best way to attack your enemies is when they least expect it!" he stated with confidence.

The two robots returned their gaze to the group and were thankful that Sonic didn't seemed to notice them.

"Do you think all this snow is unusual for Bridlewood, too?" Zipp asked to Tails at her side.

"Maybe it is, maybe is not... We should ask Izzy once she comes back" Tails replied.

And then, Izzy came out of her house by kicking the front door and carrying something in her hooves, also wearing now a scarf on her neck. "Surprise! Hoof-knitted scarves for all of you!" she said excited, levitating the scarves with her magic and handing them over to the rest. "Even for you, Sparky" she said, putting the scarf on the baby dragon.

The scarves of the Mane 5 matched with their hats, while Sonic's scarf was blue with slight pink, Tails' scarf was orange with white lines and Knuckles' scarf had green, red and purple stripes.

"Thanks!" Hitch said with a smile as well, while Sparky climbed back to his back.

"Is this traditional Wishiehoof winter wear?" Sunny asked excited, since she loved everything history related.

Hitch at her side looked at her with a smile, finding her attitude really adorable.

"Sure is!" Izzy replied with a smile. "Now bundle up, everypony. We don't want to be chilly fillies!" she stated, walking towards the forest.

"Huh..." Izzy said, stopping suddenly and placing a hoof on her chin as she started to think. "Actually... Nope!" she said cheerfully for some reason. "Now, come on! Wishiehoof awaits!" she stated, resuming her walk towards the forest.

However, as the rest followed Izzy, Hitch noticed that Knuckles was walking on the opposite direction. "Uh, Knuckles?" he called out. "The Wishing tree is this way" he pointed out.

"I know, I'll catch up with you later" Knuckles replied. "The prayer for my ancestors has to be done alone. Sorry, Hitch, but I must do this on my own" he apologized. "I'll be back soon, don't worry" he assured, turning around and moving towards the other side of the forest.

"If you say so..." Hitch replied with worry, following the rest of his friends towards the Wishing Tree in Bridlewood.

After walking for a few minutes, Knuckles arrived to a small snowy hill in the heart of the forest.

"This place could be the perfect spot to make the pray" Knuckles stated with a smile.

He moved to the top of said hill and placed the flag very still in the ground. As the wind moved the flag, Knuckles removed his winter hat and scarf, then putted them aside and kneeled in front of the flag. He putted his fists together and closed his eyes, then started to make his prays to honor his tribe.

However, he was so focused on his prayers that he couldn't notice that two robotic machines were looking at him, hiding behind some trees.

"He's even distracted!" Metal Hitch whispered excited. "This is the perfect chance for an ambush––" he tried to suggest.

"I'm sorry, what?" Metal Izzy asked, looking at Metal Hitch with a confused look.

"You heard me. You won't attack Knuckles" Eggman stated again. "I don't give a damn if he's alone, you'll let him finish whatever he's doing and you won't attack him when he leaves this place. You won't destroy the flag once he left, either. Understood?!" he questioned with anger.

"B-But doctor! He's alone! He's vulnerable!" Metal Hitch argued. "Why waste a perfect opportunity to attack?!" he asked confused and a bit mad.

"I may be and evil genius, but I know my limits" Eggman explained. "I can't stand Sonic and his crew of friends, but I respect their traditions and the memory of their ancestors. I'm cruel, sure, but not that cruel" he added. "Why do you think I never attack these idiots on holidays? Because even I take a brake during this times. The Wishing Star of this world is the reason why we're working this year, but we're going incognito since I don't need Sonic and his foolish friends to track my every move" he stated with anger. "Now, leave Knuckles alone and focus on Sunny Starscout and her phone, that thing should have the exact location of the Wishing Star. Chop, chop, chop! Get to work!" he instructed, finishing his call with the Metals.

Metal Izzy was unsure on how to feel: she couldn't understand how Eggman, 'her daddy', hated Sonic and company, yet he also respected their ways and traditions, to the point he won't even bother to attack them.

Metal Hitch though it was foolish to let them go when they could just take them down easily at one shot, but Eggman was very clear before: if he wanted to prove he was worthy of his new upgrades, he had to follow orders, no matter if he liked them or not.

Metal Hitch sighed before looking at Metal Izzy. "Let's go, Izz" he said with a tired tone. "We have to get those coordinates for the doctor" he stated, moving away from Knuckles' place.

Metal Izzy looked back at Knuckles, then sighed as well and followed Metal Hitch without saying another thing.

In the meantime, at the moment Knuckles is paying respects to his ancestors, the others arrived to the Wishing Tree with awed expressions.

In front of the tree, there were several stands and giant sized gifts around, as the unicorns were talking between each other happily.

"This looks so pretty, Izz! They really went all out" Pipp pointed out with a smile.

"This is a big contrast to our first time in Bridlewood" Sonic pointed out with a smirk. "This place was so dull and grey, and now is really cheerful and colorful!" he said.

"Yeah, it's a unicorn thing!" Izzy said with a proud smile. "Wishiehoof is a day of fun, friendship and frolicking!" she explained, hopping a bit further and then spinning around before facing her friends again. "We are very serious about our frolicking" she stated with a serious expression.

The group walked trough a small crowd of ponies, looking in awe around except for Izzy, since she was used to this kind of stuff.

The gang saw some unicorns in line as they waited their turn to place their ornaments in the Wishing Tree, that now was much easier thanks to magic.

"Ooh, I gotta get in line to place my ornament!" Izzy said excited, as she took her ornament out of the box she was carrying.

Hitch got a closer look at the ornament and smiled. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked.

"If you're asking if my ornament for the tree is the tree, then... yep!" Izzy replied.

Her ornament was, indeed, a smaller draw of the Wishing Tree, using some bracelets as the tree leaves.

"I'm gonna put the tree on the tree, how funny is that?!" Izzy asked, putting the ornament back on the box and putting the box aside. "Now, to hang it up––" she tried to add, but then she gasped when she saw someone. "Oh wait, is that Alphabittle?" she asked, as she saw Alphabittle slurping some tea and then moving on with a smile. "Alphabittle Blossomforth!" she called out, walking towards the unicorn.

Alphabittle stopped walking and smirked before turn around. "Izzy Moonbow! You're back!" he greeted her.

"Couldn't miss Wishiehoof!" Izzy pointed out with a smile. "Hey, do you still love games?" she asked curiously.

The two ponies got closer to each other with challenging looks. "Whatcha thinkin'?" Alphabittle asked to Izzy.

"Mmm, charades! I'll bet you my ornament!" Izzy challenged with a confident look, levitating her ornament to the unicorn stallion.

"I don't think you want to do that, Izzy" Alphabittle warned, putting on an even more changeling look.

"Agreed, we have experience with almost loosing something to Alphabittle" Sonic muttered in annoyance, glaring at Sunny at his side, who just chuckled nervously as she remembered how she almost lost the Unicorn Crystal against Alphabittle.

"Sounds like a dare! You're on!" Izzy stated, also putting an even more changeling look.

Alphabittle raised a hoof, starting the charades. "One word!" Izzy replied. Then, Alphabittle move his hoof like if he was putting something somewhere. "First and only word" Izzy guessed with a confident smirk.

Alphabittle made a move where one of his hoof walked over the other one. "Uh... Gumdrops!" Izzy said. Alphabittle then scratched his ear, and then moved his front hooves in the air. "Rainbow!" she said again, while the unicorn stallion made some weird moves with his hooves at one side and then at the front. "Uh, single-cell organism? Wait, that's three words!" she pointed out to herself after a roll eye. "Uh... caterpillar!" she kept guessing.

As Izzy tried to guess what was Alphabittle trying to say, Knuckles arrived and looked on very confused, not understanding what was going on.

"Izzy bet her ornament to Alphabittle, and spoiler: she's gonna loose it" Sonic whispered back with a bored expression.

"That's not even a word..." Izzy muttered to herself before exploding. "Ah! I give up!" she screamed out of stress. "What was it?!" she asked in disappointment.

"It was my own name. Alphabittle" said unicorn said before laughing. "Now cough it up! Respectfully" he told Izzy with a smile. After all, they had a deal.

Izzy levitated her ornament with a sad expression and placed it on Alphabittle's raised hoof.

However, despite seeing what just happened, Knuckles seemed to be pretty calmed about Izzy loosing her ornament, and Sonic noticed that.

"Oh, it's okay!" Izzy told Sunny with a smile. "You know what they say? Anything worth doing is worth doing, twice" she said with an innocent look, levitating an exact replica of her own ornament.

Alphabittle stared in shock at the replica of the ornament before looking back at the one he won from Izzy. "You made two? Why?" he asked confused.

"Don't you always prepare for losing spontaneous games of charades?" Izzy asked innocently.

Alphabittle chuckled before replying. "I don't need to prepare. I'm the best to ever do it!" he said with a proud smile. "Frostyshivers to you, Izzy!" he added, with his horn turning blue for a second, before turning around and leave.

"Frostyshivers back at you, Alphabittle!" Izzy said with a smile, as her horn also turned blue for a moment.

As Zipp took out the book from her saddlebag to take another look, and Tails got close to her, Sonic still looked on confused while Knuckles just smiled.

"You knew that she made another one, didn't you?" Sonic asked to the echidna with a teasing smirk.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I'm not telling you anything, Hedgehog" Knuckles replied with another smirk.

"Izz, I'd really like to get to the tree, even just to snap a few pics in portrait mode" Pipp requested with a sheepish smile, while also taking out her phone.

Izzy squealed excited, which took Pipp off guard. "O-M-Cuties!" she exclaimed, suddenly pulling Pipp away, being caught by Sonic again, since Izzy saw a group of bunnycorns hopping towards her as they squeaked. "How are you?!" she asked to them on a cute tone, but the bunnies squeaked again as they shivered. "Aw. Look at you, you're freezing! I know what you need: some Wishiehoof scarves!" she stated with a smile, bringing out a yarn ball and weaving them to create small scarves to the bunnycorns.

The bunnycorns approached to Hitch and they squeaked at him, since they knew only Hitch could understand them.

"They said, 'Thank you and Frostyshivers'" Hitch replied with a confused look, while the horns of the bunnycorns turned blue for a moment.

"I've been hearing a few unicorns saying that already" Knuckles pointed out. "Say, Izzy, what does that means?" he asked curiously with a raised eyebrow.

Izzy giggled before replying. "It's our Wishiehoof greeting" she explained with a smile. "Try it!" she told Sunny, who was at her other side.

Sunny moved and talked with some unicorns, as their horns turned blue after her greeting. "Frostyshivers! Hey, frostyshivers. Oh, over here! Hi! Also, frostyshivers!" she said with a smile.

Meanwhile, Izzy finally gave the scarves to the bunnycorns on their horns, as they hopped happily in a thankful way.

"Enjoy those scarves, and have a happy, happy Wishiehoof, okay, cuties?! Frostyshivers!" Izzy told the bunnycorns with a smile, with her horn turning blue again as the critters hopped away and Izzy walked away, humming to herself.

Sunny, however, grew a bit worried as she saw that the Wishing Star was getting close to the Crystal Brighthouse.

Unknown for her, in a distant tree behind her, a camera zoomed and took a better glance at the diagram.

"For the last time, Izzy, stop calling me like that!" Eggman ordered with annoyance.

Metal Izzy rolled her eyes before continuing. "We have the location! It was very obvious this whole time!" she stated.

"Oh, really?" Eggman said on a sarcastic tone. "And what this place must be?" he asked.

"... Okay... It is kind of obvious... Now I feel like a fool..." Eggman said with a dead tone. "But it doesn't matter! Now that we have the location, keep an eye on Team Sonic and the Mane 5" he instructed. "I'll prepare the capture device for the Wishing Star. Once they arrive to their next stop, contact me immediately!" he stated.

Back with the group, Izzy kept trotting as she hummed, until somepony cleared her throat in front of her and made her gasp and step back startled.

"Izzy... What it is...zzy?" Onyx greeted her with a chill tone and look, while Jasper at her side touched the bongos for some percussion.

"This is going to take a while, and I absolutely hate it" Sonic muttered with a bored expression as well.

Izzy laughed a bit before replying. "Hi, Onyx! Pretty snowy day, huh?" she asked with a smile.

"It's far out. I haven't seen anything like this in..." Onyx tried to say, but she stopped for a moment to think on a proper word to rhyme, while Izzy waited with a smile, the rest looked on nervously and awkwardly and Sonic had a twitchy eye since this was taking too long, and he hated anything that was too slow for his liking. "Ever, ever, ever..." Onyx finished on a chill tone again, with Jasper touching the bongos for some percussion again.

"Do you wanna hear my new Wishiehoof poem? Wrote it just for today" Onyx said with a relaxed smile.

"No!" Hitch said as well, but then he cleared his throat before keep going. "No way. Too slow" he added with concern.

"What's that? You wanna hear it too? Okay" Onyx stated, never leaving that relaxed tone of hers.

"Tails, please create a gun and shot me already" Sonic begged with an anxious look.

"I call this one, 'Requiem for the fallen snow'" Onyx stated, while Jasper played the percussion with his bongos. "What are these flakes my eyes do see? What is this chill coming over me? Is this some... enchanted winter fan-ta-sy? Snowpony, come and set me... Free, free, free..." she started to recite, while Jasper kept playing his bongos. "The flakes fall down, the trees don't wither. Colts and mares, I wish you... Frostyshivers" she finished.

Once Jasper stopped playing, both his and Onyx's horn shone in blue, as they smirked to the Mane 5 and Team Sonic.

Let's just say that they were speechless. Even Sonic, who didn't wanted to hear this at first, got a 'bro is flabbergasted' expression at the poem.

Finally, Pipp was the first one to come out of the shocked trance. "I... I don't know what to say..." she said astonished.

"I don't remember life before that poem" Hitch exclaimed, while Sparky on his back grunted, probably meaning that he didn't liked the poem at all.

"Wow... that was deeper than it had any right to be" Tails said with an amazed expression.

"I got no idea what I just heard... but somehow I feel flabbergasted" Sonic replied.

"I loved it!" Izzy said with a cheery smile. "It kinda felt a bit short, though" she pointed out.

"Well, I'm workshopping more verses at the open mic in a minute. You should come" Onyx suggested.

"We'd love to! But... we have, um, a previous obligation" Sunny said suddenly with a sheepish smile. "Bye, Onyx!" she said with a wave of her hoof. "You've got a date with a tree, buddy!" she told to Izzy, pushing her towards the Wishing Tree while Izzy just giggled.

"Alright!" Izzy replied with a smile. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" she said between laughs.

The group moved towards the tree once again to make Izzy some company as she waited her turn to place her ornament on the tree.

"It just always has been" Izzy started to explain. "Many unicorns believe it has mystical properties!" she added.

Pipp, who got at her side, gasped when she mentioned that. "Like what?" she questioned.

"It's said that the Wishing Tree can get rid of the Jinxies" Izzy explained. "I don't know if it's true, but this tree is definitely one-of-a-kind" she stated, now looking at the tree and hopping towards it as she levitated her ornament. "Here I go!" she said with a cheery smile.

She walked towards the tree and placed her ornament among other ones, while a unicorn gave Zipp, Pipp and Tails some ornaments so they could place them at the top of the tree as well. They immediately took fly and placed the ornaments on a tree branch.

"Say, Knuckles" Sonic called out. "Just out of curiosity: did you got any message from your ancestors on your prayer?" he asked.

"I was sure that I will get no message since this isn't Angel Island... but I got surprised when I heard the spirit of Pachacamac, and it told me that we should be prepared for any eventuality in the next few hours" Knuckles confessed with a frown and worry.

"That perhaps, we shouldn't let our guard down, no matter what" Knuckles replied concerned.

Once Zipp, Pipp and Tails landed back on the ground, they all heard a gong chiming, and everyone but the other unicorns, Izzy, Zipp and Sonic ducked down to avoid the sound.

Izzy squealed excited before replying with a big and bright smile. "The final Crystal Lighting Ceremony is about to begin!" she explained excited, while the unicorns gathered around a giant crystal.

Two old unicorns ducked and place their horns on the snow, then a blue trial moved towards the crystals, making them shine bright, while the unicorns around gasped in awe.

"Happy Wishiehoof, Everypony!" the old unicorn mare said as she waved her hoof with a smile.

"Frostyshivers! Frostyshivers to you! Frostyshivers to you! Frostyshivers to everypony!" one of the unicorns among the crowd said, while his horn, and the horns of the unicorns he greeted, glow in color blue.

Team Sonic and the Mane 5 watched in awe at the sky, but then Sunny got her phone out and panicked. "Oh, I hate to leave, but it's time" she stated with concern. "To the Marestream, crew!" she instructed.

"You wanna get there fast or wait for the snow flakes to leave?!" Sonic questioned with a frown.

However, as the rest moved towards the vehicle, Izzy saw somebody and smiled. "Oh, why, it's the kindly mayor's secretary who always––" she tried to say, but...

"Grab her!" Sunny shouted desperately, while Knuckles got back and grabbed Izzy, then moved back to the Marestream.

The entire group was screaming now that Sonic was the one driving the Marestream, mainly because of how wildly he lifted the vehicle from the ground.

However, they were on a hurry, so on Sonic's mind, he was only doing what had to be done if they wanted to reach Zephyr Heights in time.

"Everybody, hold onto your holiday hats!" Sonic warned, now placing his winter glasses over his eyes and smirking. "Time to reach some super sonic speed on this thing!" he stated confidently.

Since a storm started outside, the Marestream was shacking a lot, which caused everyone else to hang on from wherever they could. Even Sparky started to jump in the air and almost crashed into the ground, if it wasn't because of Hitch, who caught him at the last minute.

"Please remind me why did you allowed him to drive!" Knuckles shouted to Tails in anger.

"Hey, Sonic, can you see okay? All I see is a wall of white" Pipp pointed out, since there was snowing a lot.

"Freaking out won't get us anywhere!" Sonic stated with anger, then relaxed a bit. "Just gotta stay chill, and everything will be fine" he added with a confident smirk.

"How can we stay chill?!" Pipp cried out. "Look at all that ice!" she pointed to the wings of the Marestream, that were now freezing and destabilizing the vehicle.

"Okay, maybe we should freak out a little bit..." Sonic pointed out, putting his winter glasses back on his forehead.

Then, Izzy suddenly gasped. "I know how to calm us down!" she said, throwing a teapot for some reason. "We just have to think calm thoughts and try as hard as we can to concentrate on what we want to happen!" she explained with a cheery smile. So think about a safe landing in Zephyr Heights" she stated.

"And this works?" Tails asked confused, not really convinced since this wasn't logical at all.

"It's an old unicorn trick!" Izzy said with a sheepish smile, not so sure anymore. "Worth a shot, am I right?" she asked.

"That is the dumbest thing I ever heard!" Knuckles said with a frown. "And somehow, you're still going to prove that it can work, so let's just try it out already!" he shouted desperately.

"Well, we got nothing but our lives to loose, so give it all that you got, guys!" Sonic shouted from the driver's seat.

"Everypony visualize the fancy-schmancy Royal Gates of Zephyr Heights!" Izzy said, now placing her hooves on her head.

Sunny, Hitch, Sparky and Pipp started to do the same as Izzy. Even Knuckles and Zipp were doing it, for Tails' surprise and annoyance.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this..." Tails complained, but he ended up doing the same as his friends anyways.

"Palace, sweet palace!" Pipp started to say loudly, but then a though came into her mind. "Oh, oh, do you think the decorations will be sparkly?" she questioned with a smile.

"Concentrate!" Sunny scolded her, which also made Pipp fell if it wasn't because of Sonic, who grabbed her hoof just in time, as she got back to the task of visualizing a safe landing.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Sonic groaned, not noticing that Sunny's lantern started to glow in purple, as the entire Marestream got surrounded by a purple aura.

As the rest kept concentrating, the lamp shone brighter, and Sonic couldn't help but smile when he saw Zephyr Heights on the distance.

"There it is!" Sonic cheered. "We're actually gonna make it!" he said with a big smile.

Sonic drove the Marestream around the castle before finally landing the vehicle on the backyard of the castle.

Inside the Marestream, Izzy was the first one to open her eyes and realize that they already landed.

Then, Pipp opened her eyes as well. "Oh! Oh! Ah, how's my hair?" she asked with concern.

"Pretty as always, Princess Petals" Sonic told her with a flirty tone and a wink, who caused Pipp to blush slightly.

"I'm calling my lawyers after the special's over..." Tails muttered to himself. "This lack of logical sense is going to make me sick..." he groaned.

"We did it!" Zipp cheered, suddenly giving Tails a hug and laughing, while Tails' face turned fully red and he chuckled nervously. "I don't give credit to that!" she added.

"Me neither, but there's no time to celebrate here" Sunny said, running towards the driver's cabin and grabbing her lamp.

"Right, we've got to window shop with Mom, pronto. In-and-out job, lickity split" Pipp said with a smile, arriving along Sonic with the others as Zipp let Tails go.

"And then we've gotta get ready for the..." Zipp started to say with a bored expression, while Pipp hopped excited.

"Zephyr Heights Wishentine Royal Carousel Concert!" both Zipp and Pipp said, although Zipp said in a dead tone and Pipp said it excited.

"Seriously, who manages the names on your council? Because I would like to have a talk with them about how wrong it is to name that thing like that" Sonic complained with a bored expression.

"Well, we'll go with you, girls, but then we'll split on the city" Tails said with a smile. "We still have to look after the things for Longclaw's memorial tree. Right, Sonic?" he asked him.

"VIP Royal Luxury box tickets to the concert!" Zipp explained with a smile. "You can relax while we get ready" she stated.

"You can help yourselves to the complimentary gourmet food" Pipp pointed out with a smirk.

Knuckles face turned into a happy smile immediately after Pipp said 'food'. "Now, what kind of friend would I be if I rejected such a generous act?" he said, carefully taking the tickets from Pipp's hoof.

Knuckles gave each one of the crew their respective ticket, with Sonic putting it aside on his quills and Tails doing the same on his tails.

"Let's go, ponies! We've still got a star to wish on later" Sunny stated with a smile.

"Wishentine!" they all cheered in excitement, raising their hooves and hands in the air.

However, as they got out of the Marestream, they didn't noticed two robotic figures watching over them.

In Zephyr Heights, Queen Haven walked with her daughters and Cloudpuff on the streets, with two pegasi guards - amazingly not Zoom nor Thunder - following the Royal Family with their shopping on their backs.

"Come, Cloudpuff. Pick up those precious paws!" Haven called out to the dog, who was wearing a purple winter hat, as he flew towards Haven and landed on her back. "Don't dawdle" she told him with a smile, while Zipp and Pipp looked at each other with strange looks. "Oh! Darlings! Come look at this! " she called out to her daughters with excitement while looking to something on a shop. "Crandall's has outdone themselves!" she added.

What she was looking at was at three cardboard ponies decorating a fireplace, which made her excited for some reason.

Zipp rolled her eyes before giving a fake smile. "Wow, Mom, that was amazing. Very festive! Yup. So incredible, I don't think it can be outdone" she said in a fast paste, which confused Haven at first, but then she simply smiled. "Why bother looking at anything else?" she added, trying to keep her mother there to waste time before the performance.

"What's next?" Pipp asked suddenly, and then she saw something that made her gasp. "Ohh! They're doing a maple syrup tasting at Outingdale's!" she exclaimed with a smile.

"Dibs on first sample!" Zipp challenged, as she and Pipp flew quickly towards Outingdale's, while Haven looked at them with a raised eyebrow, not getting why they were so on a hurry.

Suddenly, a blue blur passed by, as well as a yellow blur, which Haven didn't noticed because of how fast they were going. However, said blurs returned and revealed themselves to be Sonic and Tails, as they smiled to the Queen of Zephyr Heights.

"Your highness!" Tails greeted as well, removing his winter hat in sign of respect.

"Greetings, Sonic, Tails!" Haven said with a smile. "You two seem to be in a hurry" she pointed out.

"Yeah, well, we're getting our shopping as fast as we can" Sonic explained. "And that memorial tree for Longclaw won't buy itself" he added on a joking tone.

"We gotta hurry, or else Sunny would make us sleep either in the couch or the snow..." Tails said with a sheepish smile and an anxious look. "Good to see you, majesty! See ya later" he said with a cheery smile, moving away to keep going with the shopping.

"Come on, Mom!" Zipp called out, since neither she nor Pipp noticed Sonic and Tails talking with Haven. "Get your syrup on!" she added.

Haven tried to keep up with her daughters, but of course, she wasn't as young as them, and she started to pant exhausted.

"Oh my... Girls, slow down!" Haven begged with an exhausted tone. "Shopping isn't a race, it's a marathon!" she pointed out with a smile.

"Oh, uh, well, um... We, uh..." Pipp said nervously, trying to think on an excuse of why they were such on a hurry.

"We just want to make the most of our Wishentine with you" Zipp decided to step in with a more normal smile, although she was also very nervous.

"Yeah! We'd rather spend less time at more places than more time at less places!" Pipp added, now on a more convincing tone.

"Well, I suppose that makes sense" Haven said after thinking about it, but then she gasped and pointed to a certain shop. "Oh my hoofness, look! It's us!" she said excited, looking at three cardboard versions of herself, Zipp and Pipp on the window of a shop.

Zipp looked on with a bored expression, while Pipp just got confused at first before squealing excited herself and walking towards her. Zipp groaned in annoyance and followed Pipp, none of them noticing two things:

The first one; that one of the guards with the gifts got weak legs and fell into the ground, trowing the gifts in the process. The second one; that Sonic and Tails were running crazily around Zephyr Heights as they made their shopping, and then crashing against each other accidentally, with Sonic throwing some giant, golden, spinning rings.

They both got up and Tails kept going, while Sonic touched the rings he dropped, as said rings turned into some kind of golden dust and got inside of him, then he kept shopping as well.

Back with the royals, Zipp couldn't help but take a glance at a snowdrop ornament on the same window Haven and Pipp were staring at.

"Hey, Mom, do you know any Wishentine pony-tales about snow?" Zipp asked curiously.

However, Haven didn't seemed to be paying her many attention, since she suddenly wrapped her and Pipp with her wings and bring them close to take a selfie. "Oh girls, come. We simply must take a selfie with our self-ies!" she stated, taking out her phone and smiling, while Zipp smiled sheepishly and Pipp made a duck face for some reason.

In front of them, a few meters away, Sonic and Tails were now walking towards the Marestream with all of their shopping, with each one of them carrying a small pile of things.

"At least we got all the stuff" Sonic said. "Also, I think our little crash earlier made me loose two rings or more..." he added with concern.

At the VIP area of the place were Zipp and Pipp will perform, Sunny, Izzy and Hitch felt awed by the place, while Knuckles just lay on the couch he was sitting with Izzy with his eyes closed and his legs crossed.

At that moment, both Zoom and Thunder arrived with the guests, holding plates with sandwiches. "Fizziewick sandwiches?" Thunder asked, kneeling in front of Sunny, Hitch and Sparky while showing the plate.

Sparky immediately grabbed one of the sandwiches and chomped it, while Hitch just stared at the plate confused and Sunny looked on curiously.

"Whoa, what are those?!" Izzy asked in excitement to Zoom, who also approached with the plate towards her and Knuckles.

"That's just what Thunder calls cucumber sandwiches" Zoom explained with a bored expression.

"Oh, that's creative!" Izzy said with a smile, levitating one of the sandwiches and eating it entirely.

"Well, I used to call grapes 'sacred banquets from the gods', so I guess I kinda understand him" Knuckles said, still with his eyes closed.

"Sup, guys!" Sonic greeted with a smirk. "Sorry it took us a bit longer than expected, but someone forgot that we had to print a picture of Longclaw and then frame it" he explained, looking at Tails with a frown.

"You're always in charge of the list, but knowing that if we didn't make it here in time we'll pretty much sleep in the snow, I had to hurry!" Tails defended himself.

"You could have just gave your list to the sisters, Hedgehog" Knuckles said with a bored expression, now opening his eyes and staring blankly at Sonic and Tails. "I'm pretty sure your 'Little Pipp' wouldn't mind, he he he" he added with a mocking smirk.

However, both Sonic and Tails stared at him on a very creepy way, and Knuckles smile faded as his eyes opened a bit more, and now he started to feel scared and unsafe.

Sonic got up from his place and approached to him. "First and last warning, Knuckles: Never make fun of Pipp being short ever again in your life if you still wanna be able to use those knuckles of yours. Understood?" he warned the echidna with a cold glare - combined with blue electrical eyes - and a serious voice, while Knuckles gulped and nodded.

"As for the list thing: the whole meaning is to get the things with our own effort and our own money, Knucklehead" Tails explained with a bored expression. "Is the way Longclaw used to do it before she left... In a way, we're just honoring her tradition by doing the same" he added a bit saddened.

"In other words: that's by far the stupidest suggestion you have made so far, Knux" Sonic added with a bored expression. "And you suggested to throw Rouge from one of the cliffs of Angel Island, despite knowing she has wings to fly" he reminded.

Suddenly, as Izzy picked up another sandwich, Sunny came to her with sparkling eyes. "Oh, Izzy, look!" she said, now pointing at a table in front of the couches. "There's even presents for us?! Wow, so unexpected!" she said with a smile.

"Uh, Sunny?" Tails called out with a confused look. "Actually, those boxes seem to be just for––" he tried to point out.

"Huh?" Hitch said, trying to chomp on his sandwich, but of course, when it comes to Sunny, she became his only focus.

Sunny opened one of the gifts with a huge smile, that faded away once she saw there was nothing on them.

"Oh, those are just..." Thunder began, trying to explain that those boxes were just to decorate the place, but then the three ponies gave sad puppy faces to Zoom and Thunder. "Uh, uh, well... You see..." he said nervously, while Team Sonic behind of the three ponies just made signs with their hands, trying to tell the two pegasi guards to play along and come up with something.

"They're full of air!" Zoom said suddenly with a nervous tone. "Um, air from clouds! Special clouds!" she added.

"That's right, clouds! It's a traditional pegasus gift" Thunder added, playing along with Zoom.

"How fascinating! And clever!" Sunny said with a smile, grabbing a box and taking a better look at it. "What kind of clouds? Nimbus? Cumulonimbus? Cirrus? Raincloud?" she questioned.

"Nah, that doesn't make sense" Izzy said with a frown, causing Zoom, Thunder and Team Sonic to panic... until she spoke again. "The box would leak" she said, and then laughed, causing Zoom, Thunder and Team Sonic to sigh on relief again.

Sunny laughed along with Izzy, and that action made Hitch to look only at Sunny with a smile, thing that didn't went unnoticed by Sonic and Tails.

"One of these days, we're locking up this two in a room and won't get them out until they confess to each other" Tails muttered to Sonic with a smirk.

As she thought of that, Zoom and Thunder turned around to leave them. "That was a really good cover" Zoom whispered to Thunder with a smirk.

"Oh, you too" Thunder replied and smirked back. "I just rolled with it" he added.

"I don't know why we didn't just tell them these are decorations" Zoom questioned.

"They're probably too stupid or too innocent. Either way, better not ruin the illusion to them, you know" Knuckles muttered to Sonic and Tails, while his two friends nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, the shopping experience for the sisters wasn't that exciting... at least for Queen Haven, who was panting a lot, and the guards with them, since they had to carry all the shopping bags and boxes.

"Mom, look at that!" Zipp exclaimed, as she and Pipp literally just passed by a shop. "And that!" she exclaimed again. "Wow!" she exclaimed once again.

"Yeah, it's even more impressive if you look at it while flying by it at top speed!" Pipp added, as she and Zipp kept flying faster.

Heaven stopped following to catch her breath, while Cloudpuff barked at the sisters for leaving their mother behind.

"Maybe Sonic isn't that good of an influence after all..." Haven said tiredly, but of course, she didn't mean it, she was just tired of Zipp and Pipp's sudden speedster attitude. "Alright, that's enough ganders, girls. I can hardly keep up!" she called out to her daughters with an eye roll.

And then, Dazzle appeared on one of the giant screens of the city to make an announcement. "Later this evening on ZBS, the Zephyr Heights Royal Wishentine Carousel Concert featuring Princesses Pipp and Zipp and the royal chamber choir!" he announced.

Haven squealed in excitement at the announcement. "Come along, my dears!" she called out to Zipp and Pipp, as the sisters landed in front of their mother. "It's time to head to the concert hall! We need extra rehearsal time" she stated.

"I pulled some strings" Haven confessed with a smile. "You've got several more numbers in the concert. Which means... the show is twice as long as usual!" she revealed in excitement.

Excitement that her daughters didn't shared, as they looked at each other in panic and worry. Then, their Mom gave them the concert script, which was longer than it should, as Zipp groaned in worry and Pipp chuckled nervously.

An hour later, more or less, the remaining of the Mane 5, Sparky and Team Sonic were still enjoying the VIP treatment as they waited for the concert to begin.

Both Izzy and Sunny took some desserts from a plate Thunder was carrying, while Hitch slurped from a tea cup. Team Sonic where not eating, but Sonic and Knuckles were also slurping a bit from tea cups, while Tails was reading the book Zipp borrowed from Grandma Figgy, since she was busy with her stuff to keep investigating, so it was up to him now.

"I gotta say, this is the life!" Hitch stated with a smirk, laying a bit more on the couch he was sitting on with Sunny and Sparky.

Sonic, who was just waiting for the show to start and stare at Pipp the whole time (no, he didn't deny it), noticed Tails looking trough the book with a concentrated look.

Sonic kinda knew that Tails wanted to help out Zipp after he had a complicated situation with her a few months ago, but he could sense that something else was going on.

Suddenly, the lights went out, and Zoom and Thunder placed their plates down and stood on military pose with serious expressions, confusing the others a lot. Even Tails finally got his sight off the book since there wasn't enough light to read it.

Music from trumpets started to play as Queen Haven appeared on the stage, which made the crowd of ponies to cheer up and stomp their hooves in excitement.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Haven called out to the crowd with a smile. "Thank you all so much for braving the snow to attend to our joyous and wonderful, wondrous and joyful Zephyr Heights Wishentine Royal Carousel Concert!" she announced.

The whole crowd of ponies started to cheer after that. Even the gang was cheering up on the VIP area.

"You're in for a treat! Tonight's show will be extra special" Haven stated with a smile. "We will be taking you trough the entire history of Wishentines of yestermoon" she explained, while one of the ponies of the royal chamber choir tried to read the script on a last minute move. "Now, we will begin with Act One of six––" Haven tried to announce.

However, Sunny, who was slurping some tea, spitted it out after Haven said that there will be six acts instead of the usual three. "Six?!" she shouted in panic, with her voice echoing around all the stage.

"Now, it is my pleasure to introduce our very own royal orchestra, chamber choir and my talented daughters, Princesses Pipp Petals and Zephyrina Storm!" Haven announced with a proud smile, moving aside to let the crowd take a look at the princesses.

Pipp, aside from her usual tiara, was now also wearing a golden dress and golden bracelets in all her hooves. Zipp was, for the very first time, also wearing a tiara, a golden one with blue gems around, as well as a purple variation of Pipp's dress, and the same golden bracelets she had.

The fire is glowing
Friendship is flowing
It's the feeling of knowing
It will soon be Wishentine

As they started to sing and fly around, the crowd of ponies looked in awe at the sisters performance.

Hooves on the rooftop
The ringing of the bells
Lights shining bright
On the carousel

As for the gang, Sunny, Izzy, Hitch and Knuckles looked on in awe as well, while Sparky fas falling asleep because of the rhythm of the song. But what about Sonic and Tails? Well...

Sonic couldn't help but blush slightly at Pipp's look. For him, she was cute and gorgeous by just existing already, yet somehow she always impressed him in new ways he thought were not even possible.

"Yup. Still as pretty as the first day" Sonic said with a little smile. "But I gotta say, seeing Zipp wearing a tiara feels kinda wrong" he added with a teasing tone.

"I get ya" Hitch said "It really seems a bit off on her" he pointed out, while the others sins Tails nodded in agreement.

"What do you think, Tails? Isn't it kinda weird to see her with a tiara at all?" Sonic questioned to Tails.

However, Tails wasn't sitting at his side anymore when he asked that, which took him completely off guard. He looked around for him, until he found Tails hanging on the border of the railing of the VIP area, as he moved his tails excited... like a dog, and Tails never did that before, so it just concerned Sonic even more.

Joyous, joyous Wishentine
Joyous, joyous Wishentine
The twinkling wishing star that shines
A joyous, joyous Wishentine

He never expected what he saw next: Tails' cheeks were blushing, his eyes were sparkling and he was staring at something on the stage... or rather, someone.

Sonic followed his gaze: at first, he though he was looking at someone in the crowd, but then noticed that his sight was a bit higher than that, so he followed it again and ended up seeing Zipp as she kept singing and dancing with Pipp on the stage.

Sonic felt confused at first, not getting why he was staring at Zipp like that... and then reality hit him like a train.

Months ago, Zipp told him something about feeling weird whenever she was around Tails, or even when he complimented her or talked to her on a more careful way. She said that instead of feeling the urge to tell him to stop, she allowed him to keep acting like that because she enjoyed it.

And now that he thought about it, Zipp and Tails have been at each other's side the whole day. He even saw Zipp blushing - yes, Zipp blushing - around him a few times. And now, Tails was investigating something with her and was acting like this towards her performance.

Connecting two and two wasn't any difficult this time, because the conclusion was very obvious: Zipp had a crush on Tails, and now it seemed like Tails had a crush on Zipp as well.

Sonic smiled a bit... sad. Why? Because he knew that, if Tails was already experimenting this kind of emotions, then it meant he was maturing faster than he would have liked to.

"You're growing up, lil' bro..." Sonic told him with a sad smile, although Tails didn't seemed to hear since he was really focused on Zipp. "And I couldn't be more proud of you" he added.

Since Tails was so lost on Zipp, he decided to get lost on Pipp as well, and gosh, she was espectacular.

After 6 acts, the only ones awake were Sonic and Tails, since they were really into the princesses performance.

Al the others, while interested at first, fell asleep at the third act. Knuckles was snoring, and Izzy felt asleep on his shoulder, also snoring.

Sunny tried to stay awake, but it was so difficult, so she made herself comfortable on Hitch's shoulder, who was asleep and grabbing the sleepy Sparky.

But they were not the only ones, because as Zipp and Pipp sang, they were also falling asleep.

Sleigh bells are ringing
Young ponies singing
The season is bringing
The joy of Wishentine

The gifts that we share
As our hearts all swell
As we go round and round
On the carousel

A joyous, joyous Wishentine

Some members of the crowd managed to wake up and clap with their hooves to hide the fact that they fell asleep.

Sonic and Tails were the only ones who clapped properly in excitement, and it was their clapping what woke the rest of their friends up.

"It was beautiful" both Sonic and Tails said with smiles, and Tails was still blushing. Also, his tails were making the shape of a heart.

"What? Oh, the show. Nah, that was pretty boring, to tell the truth" Sonic said in a casual tone. "I was talking about Pipp. She was beautiful!" he pointed out with a little smile and a blush.

"I was talking about––" Tails was about to say, but as soon as he realized what he wanted to say, he quickly corrected himself. "The show! Yeah! The show!" he shouted with a sheepish smile.

Meanwhile, Haven also clapped her Hooves at the performance, since she didn't fell asleep either.

Then, her daughters arrived at her side. "Love you, Mom!" Zipp exclaimed, as she gave Haven a hug. "This was, uh... Amazing! Yeah! Just great" she said, then flying towards the backstage.

"Yes! So glad we could celebrate Wishentine with you! Kisses!" Pipp exclaimed, following Zipp to the backstage.

"Excuse me, where do you two think you're going in this snowfall?" Haven asked with a concerned look.

"Maretime Bay! To see the Wishing Star" Pipp replied, once again wearing her holiday hat and the scarf Izzy gave to her and her friends and then running towards the Marestream to meet the rest.

Haven blinked a bit before smiling. "Joyous Wishentine, my darlings" she said to her daughters.

"Aww. Thank you, Highness" Thunder said with a smile, as he arrived suddenly with Zoom.

Meanwhile, the gang was waiting outside for the sisters to come back, with Sunny holding her lamp on her hoof.

"Hmm?" Tails said, not really listening since he was again paying attention to the book.

"You seemed to be really interested on the 'show'. Care to elaborate?" Knuckles asked with a mocking tone and a smirk.

Tails just lifted up his sigh from the book and looked at Knuckles with a bored expression.

"I found the show really interesting?" Tails replied with a raised eyebrow. "Come on, guys. The show wasn't that bad. I liked it" he added, now talking to everyone in general.

"Are you sure you're talking about the show?" Izzy asked, also with a teasing smirk.

"Yeah~ A show called 'Princess Zephyrina Storm'~" Sonic said with a chuckle and a teasing tone.

Tails' eyes widened, and his face became entirely red after that. It didn't took long for the ponies in the group to realize as they gasped, while Sonic just chuckled again and Knuckles let out a laugh.

"G-Guys! I-It's not that!" Tails said nervously, with his blush now limiting only to his cheeks. "I-I mean, yeah, Zipp can be elegant when she wants too, s-she's pretty smart, a-and I think she looked beautiful on that dress, a-and––" he said unconsciously.

"What?!" Tails said in panic, realizing that he was, indeed, flying off the ground by accident.

His Tails stopped suddenly, and he felt into the snowy ground, landing on his face. He got his face off the snow with a bored expression and his cheeks puffed.

"Time to face it, lil' bro: You like Zipp!" Sonic said in a teasing tone, as he helped him to stand up.

"Aww, Tails! This is so adorable! You are so adorable!" Izzy said, hopping around the fox.

"The sooner you accept you have a crush on Zipp, the sooner we'll stop mocking you around, partner..." Sonic told him with a smirk. "... That much" he added in a mocking tone, while Tails just gave him a bored expression.

"We're here! We're here!" Zipp said, stopping and taking a moment to catch her breath.

"Sorry that took so long, Sunny!" Pipp apologized. "We had no idea it would be six acts" she added with a guilty tone and expression.

"Oh yeah! Zephyr Heights really knows hot to put on a show!" Hitch complimented as well.

"The part where you all flew around in a circle like an actual carousel?!" Izzy said in excitement, then spinning around and falling to the ground, just to stand up again and smile. "I'm still dizzy!" she said cheerfully.

"And the snow is... Ah!" Izzy said, realizing how much it was snowing. "What is this?" she questioned confused.

"Whoa, it is!" Izzy said with a smile. "I can't belizzle it's blizzarding right now!" she added cheerfully.

"And the storm doesn't give any conditions to fly right now" Tails said with concern.

Sunny shivered a bit before replying. "N-Not if we hurry!" she replied with a smile.

"Great. One question, tho: Where the heck is it?!" Sonic shouted, since there were now big mountains of snow all around the backyard, and of course, the Marestream was covered in one of those.

"I wanted so badly for us to get back in time to view the Wishing Star together" Sunny complained in a sad tone, putting her lamp down. "And now we're stranded in Zephyr Heights on Wishday, Wishiehoof, Wishentine, Christmas, whatever you call it!" she groaned in frustration.

"Yeah! I'm not giving up yet!" Izzy stated as well, levitating Sunny's lamp with her magic.

Knuckles, however, looked at the amounts of snow, then at his fists, and then he smirked with confidence.

After that, Knuckles jumped and dig up into the snow in the ground, then he made his way towards the mountains of snow.

Then, he was mumbling inside one of the mountains when he suddenly got out of it. "Is not here!" Knuckles said, then he dived into the next mountain. "Not here either!" he exclaimed, coming out of it and jumping to the next one. "I found 10 bucks!" he exclaimed with a smile, then dived into the next mountain, just for a clank sound to be heard. "Ouch!" Knuckles exclaimed, then he got out of that mountain and landed into the ground with his face. "I found it..." he groaned.

"Oh, right..." Sonic said with a blank expression. "I forgot you echidnas can do that" he added.

"Well, we know where it is now, but how do we get it out of there?" Tails questioned.

"Oh, I just wish we could get the Marestream out of there..." Izzy muttered with sadness.

And then, Sunny's lamp started to shine bright after she said that. The lamp floated away from Izzy's magic and buried into the mountain of snow where the Marestream was buried. Knuckles, who was still on the ground, stood up and stepped back away from the mountain. After a few moments, and some lights coming from the inside of said mountain, the Marestream came out of the snow and landed in front of the Mane 5 and Team Sonic.

"Okay, I will not complain about that lamps actions anymore" Sonic said with a smile.

"Actually..." Tails started, taking out the book and looking at it's cover again.

"Just like in the book!" Zipp started to explain. "In Grandma Figgy's book, Fantastical Flurrytales of Wishiehoof, whenever the unicorns wanted snowy weather, they would try to recite a spell for it" she said.

"But it's been ages since unicorns in Equestria could harness that ability because magic was lost!" Tails added. "And now that it's back..." he hinted, making a move with his hands.

Izzy gasped in shock, realizing what Zipp and Tails meant. "The unicorns have been doing a spell?!" she said in shock.

"Uh-huh, exactly!" Tails replied. "That's why we're having this snowstorm!" he finished.

"Detective Zipp does it again!" Sunny said with a smile. "And with the help of her pal Tails, of course!" she added.

"But the unicorns don't know they're doing spells!" Izzy pointed out with worry.

"Maybe we should make a last minute stop back in Bridlewood to warn the unicorns before return to Maretime Bay" Sonic suggested.

However, as the rest nodded in agreement, a red point suddenly appeared on Tails' forehead, which Zipp noticed.

"Tails, little guy, you have something on your––" Zipp said, pointing at his forehead.

Tails passed a finger over his forehead, hopping that it would remove, but instead it stood there... and then more red points appeared all around his body, alarming Zipp.

"What the––" Knuckles tried to say, but then those same red points appeared on his body.

Sonic also got those same red points, and while the others also got the same red points around their bodies and grew worried, Sonic was just confused at first... until he realized what was happening. "You've got to be kidding me!" he shouted in anger.

A bunch of Buzz Bombers, Buzzers, Crabmeats and Moto Bugs showed up suddenly, and the gang realized that the red points were coming from them, because those machines were planning to kill them.

"Uh, guys?" Sunny called out in panic. "Being threatened with death was not in our plans, right?" she asked nervously.

"Not in ours... but I know a certain doctor who did plan to put our tombstones right here" Sonic said in anger.

And then, both Metal Izzy and Metal Hitch landed behind the Badniks, just to be followed by a yellow light. As said light came closer, some kind of circular small ship landed behind the two remaining Metal Mane, and then the capsule of said ship opened.

In the snow, two black boots landed, and the man started to walk towards the Mane 5 and Team Sonic. The Mane 5 felt scared, Hitch grabbed Sparky in a protective manner, Knuckles groaned, Tails gulped, Sonic rolled his eyes and Zipp stood on a fighting position despite not knowing what or who she was seeing.

"Greetings, Sonic. Tails. Knucklehead. Little ponies" Dr. Eggman said with a grin on his face, also wearing a black and red scarf besides his regular clothes.

"Hey there, Eggy" Sonic greeted back with a bored expression. "Didn't expected you from all people to show up" he added, crossing his arms in annoyance.

"To tell the truth, I wasn't planning on doing anything tonight at all, but some circumstances called my attention, so here I am!" Eggman replied with a sinister smile.

"S-Sonic?" Pipp called out in fright. "C-Could you give us some context?" she asked nervously.

"Oh right, this is the first time you guys met each other" Sonic said in a tired voice. "Guys, this is the pain in the ass I been dealing with ever since I was 5" he told to the Mane 5 with a bored expression. "Eggman, this are my new friends from this dimension" he told now to the doctor.

"What a lovely way to introduce me, rodent" Eggman said with a bored expression.

"The one and only!" Eggman replied instead, once again grinning. "And I gotta say, I was looking forward to our first meeting in person. Though, I never expect it to be on such a weird climate circumstances" he added, looking at the snowstorm with genuine concern.

"Stop playing around, Eggman!" Knuckles shouted. "What do you want?!" he asked in anger.

"Oh, Knuckles..." Eggman said on a mocking tone. "Despite all that knowledge about the past and ancient civilizations, you still are a knucklehead at the end of the day" he stated with a grin. "But I'll give you the chance to feel rewarded and tell you what am I doing here: to say goodbye to all of you before I steal the Wishing Star, of course!" he revealed.

"You're gonna what now?!" Sunny asked in panic, while Sonic rolled his eyes and facepalmed, then shook his head in annoyance and shrugged. "B-But why?!" she asked again.

"Sunny Starscout, I suppose" Eggman looked at her. "You're a brilliant girl, from what I've seen, but you're too oblivious to the dangers around you. The Wishing Star is just what I need to make the Eggman Empire a reality! Its wishing power could create everything I always wanted in the blink of an eye!" he explained with an evil grin. "And I have to thank these two deeply!" he added, now pointing at Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy.

"It's thanks to these two that I'm here right now" Eggman explained with a proud smile. "They followed my every order of track you down without harming you step by step. They hesitated and doubted me, yet they obeyed anyways! I couldn't be more proud of you two!" he told to the remaining Metal Mane.

"Thanks, doctor" both Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy replied, although Metal Izzy did it cheerfully.

"Why, of course!" Eggman replied. "I may be an evil genius, but I'm not a monster. Why do you think I stopped using animals to power my machines? Heck, I regret doing that everyday of my life. Besides, I respect others traditions and believes, that's why I never attacked on holidays before... Also is the only time of the year I can take a vacation, so take it or screw it" he added.

"Well, I discovered the Wishing Star by reading some of Opaline's old books. Gotta say, it's hard to be entertained in that castle..." Eggman said in a bored tone.

"Uh-huh" Sonic said with a bored expression, confusing the Mane 5. "Look, Eggman, we've been having a blast today, and things only started to went wrong after the concert was over. We're freezing out here, we know how to revert the climate condition before we all turn into thin ice living beings, and you just show up out of nowhere during the holidays for the very first time in your life. You know how's this going to end? With me, Tails, Knuckles and these guys kicking your butt and laughing at your face... like always!" he said with a bit of anger. "Could you please get to the point of why you're here telling us your plan instead of tracking down the star so then we can kick your ass?" he begged, again with a bored expression.

Eggman stared at Sonic with a bored expression for a while. "Not the kind of answer I expected from you, to tell the truth, but I guess after 20 years, this is starting to get boring" he said with tiredness as well.

"Well, I guess I should just get to the point then..." Eggman said, snapping his fingers and making the Badniks approach to the Mane 5 and Team Sonic even more.

"Yeah, well, I don't care" Eggman replied, now walking towards his Eggmobile and getting inside of it. "Enjoy your last minutes of living while I enjoy my Wishing Star" he stated.

"And if the Wishing Star doesn't gives you what you want?!" Sunny asked in fright. "What would you do?!" she added in concern.

"Well, If I can't get my wish, then no one will" Eggman stated with a sinister grin that sent chills on Sunny's spine. "Badniks! Metal Mane! CRUSH THEM ALL!!!" he ordered to his machines, closing the capsule of his Eggmobile and boosting flying towards Maretime Bay.

The Badniks approached the group, as well as Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy, and they all got ready to kill the Mane 5 and Team Sonic.

"Well, now Knuckles' ancestors message makes more sense" Tails said, trying to stay calm. "Not expecting it in this way, to tell the truth, because I didn't saw com––" he tried to add, but...

"How can you be saying that when were about to get killed?!" Zipp asked in panic.

"Now you see why we should have brought weapons, Sonic?!" Knuckles asked in anger.

"You're forgetting an important thing, Knuckles: WE are the weapons!" Sonic said with a grin. "Tails, now!" he instructed.

Tails created two plasma guns with his electrical powers and destroyed a line of Buzzers, while Sonic charged up his Spindash and destroyed the entire line of Moto Bugs.

Knuckles pressed a button on his watch, and then used his electrical powers to create a spear. Then, he started to spin the spear professionally and destroyed all the Crabmeats and the Buzz Bombers.

"Oh, right... these guys..." Knuckles groaned, as Sonic suddenly landed at his side.

Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy just looked at each other before nodding, and the blink of an eye, they were nowhere to be seen.

Her response came, when something suddenly hit Knuckles in the back. He groaned in pain, and then turned around... to find nothing.

Then, another hit came to his shoulder, then another tho his knees, then one to his stomach, and finally a punch on his face that sent him flying backwards and crashing against one of the walls of the palace. Knuckles fell in the snow almost unconscious.

"Alright, I've seen enough!" Sonic stated, stopping time around him and then seeing that Metal Izzy and Metal Hitch entered in the realm of speed.

However, that only made Sonic smirk as he, still with time stopped, went into super speed mode and got behind the Metals, then he touched their backs with his electrical powers, and let all his anger out on the robots, which caused them to shut down and fell into the snow, with time going regular speed again.

Sonic looked at her holding Knuckles head, while the echidna lay in the snow unconscious. Sonic rolled his eyes, and walked over to him, then kneeled to look at him with a bored expression, and then he used a finger slightly charged up with electricity over his chest, which immediately woke him up.

"Gah!" Knuckles shouted in panic, looking around in fright. "What happened? Are we dead already?!" he asked with concern.

"I have no idea of what knocked me out, but yeah. I'm fine" Knuckles replied, scratching his head.

However, Pipp noticed that the two remaining Metals turned slightly on again and pointed at Sonic's back.

However, Tails twirled his tails at fast paste, and then he used them to cut the heads of the two metals. The heads fell in the snow, and the two robots finally died.

"Well?" Tails asked to Sonic with a smirk, as he landed on the ground, while Sonic just walked towards him and stared at the head of Metal Hitch.

"Expertly done. Bonus points for dramatic timing" Sonic said with a serious expression, clapping his hands to his partner's accomplishment.

"Okay, that was very anticlimactic" Knuckles said with a bored expression as he stood up. "So, what where you saying?" he asked to Zipp.

"That now we have to worry about stopping this snowstorm and about Eggman stealing the Wishing Star!" Zipp pointed out with worry.

"But what do we do?" Pipp asked in panic. "We cannot be in two places at the same time!" she pointed out.

"Maybe we can" Sonic said with his eyes closed and a smirk. "Eggman wants to wait for the Wishing Star to pass above the Brighthouse and capture it, so we just have to stop him before the star arrives" he stated.

"Look, you guys go to Bridlewood and stop this storm. Leave the 'kick Eggman's butt and save Winter Wishday for everypony in Maretime Bay' part to me!" Sonic instructed. "If I know something about Egghead, is that he never learns from his mistakes, no matter how many times he fails" he stated with a smirk, taking out a Chaos Emerald from his quills. "Also, I'll be careful, try to not get myself killed, blah, blah, blah. Bye!" he added.

Without waiting for anyone to say anything, he just boosted away towards Maretime Bay.

The others sins Tails, Knuckles and Pipp went inside of the Marestream to get to Bridlewood and stop the snowstorm.

"Me too, but no time to question him right now" Tails said with a determinate look. "We can help him find Eggman and whatever he's gonna use to capture the Wishing Star if we end with the snowstorm already!" he stated.

Knuckles sighed, then nodded and went inside the Marestream as well, but Pipp stood there, looking worried on the direction Sonic left.

"Even if he is, Sonic has overcome thousands of things Eggman-related before" Tails explained, placing his hand on her shoulder. "He'll be back in one piece, and this time is for sure! Eggman needs more than a brilliant mind to make a simple scratch on Sonic" he assured with a smile, also winking at Pipp, which made her feel better since she smiled back. "Now, let's go! We have snowstorm to stop!" he stated.

Pipp nodded with a determinate look, and both she and Tails went back to the Marestream as well.

In Bridlewood, the unicorns where shivering because of the sudden snowstorm, and yet they still greeted to each other with the same word.

"F-F-Frosty... sh-shivers!" one unicorn stallion, carrying a cart with tea, greeted to a unicorn mare as he shivered, with his horn turning blue again.

"F-F-Frostyshivers!" the unicorn mare greeted back, also shivering, and her horn also turned blue.

"Frostyshivers" both Onyx and Jasper greeted to a unicorn stallion as they shivered, with their horns turning blue as well.

"F-Frostyshi... shi-shivers" the unicorn stallion greeted back, shivering as well, with his horn turning blue like the rest.

"Wait!" Izzy shouted, as she came out of the Marestream with a panicked expression. "Everypony, stop saying that!" she begged. "Stop saying that! It's Jinxie! It's causing the snowstorm!" she started to explain.

"Yeah! So don't say 'Frostyshiv––'!" Izzy tried to warn, but then Knuckles covered her mouth suddenly.

"Don't say 'Frostyshivers' if you don't wanna die from a cold" Knuckles said with a frown to the unicorns, while Izzy just nodded at what he was saying.

"Well, then, what should we say?" one of the unicorns asked as he scratched his head.

The gang stood quiet and said nothing for a while, as Knuckles retired his hand from Izzy's mouth.

"Huh... Now that I think about it, we never though on that..." Tails pointed out with a concerned look.

"Uh... how about... um... Warm Wishiehoof?" Izzy asked with a sheepish smile, as she stomped her front hooves on the ground and her horn suddenly turned yellow.

The rest of the unicorns just stared at each other confused before playing along. "Warm Wishiehoof?" one of the unicorns told to Onyx, also stomping his hoofs like Izzy, while his horn turned yellow as well.

"Uh, Warm Wishiehoof?" Onyx greeted back, while Jasper brought his bongos back for more percussion.

And then, all of the unicorns in Bridlewood started to greet each other with 'Warm Wishiehoof' instead of Frostyshivers, not only causing their horns and the crystals around the forest to turn yellow, but also making the snowstorm to stop.

"It's working!" Sunny said with a smile. "Keep saying it, everypony!" she instructed.

The unicorns around Bridlewood kept greeting themselves with their new Wishiehoof greeting, which caused the snowstorm to finally come to an end, as the night sky also cleared out, which made everyone.

"Phew!" Alphabittle exclaimed. "I was starting to think I was going to brake my snow shovel... or my back" he said, cracking his back a bit.

"Good to see that this worked out and all, but we have another thing to worry about and it's called Dr. Eggman!" Knuckles stated.

Everyone ran back to the Marestream, except for Tails who stared at the sky in confusion. "Isn't this new spell gonna bring Global Warming to this world now or something?" he questioned.

Then, Zipp arrived and grabbed him from his shoulders. "Move and drive, handsome!" she said with a worried tone.

Meanwhile, Eggman was on his Eggmobile with the capsule open, waiting for the Wishing Star to pass over Maretime Bay when he suddenly realized that it stopped snowing.

"Huh... I guess those fools did survived after all" Eggman though. "Wait! If they survived, then that means that my Metals are... Dang it!" he yelled in anger and genuine sadness. "I finally got Metals that were almost perfect! And now... Now..." he said in concern, looking down and trying to process the fact that he had no Metals left. "But it won't be in vain. At least, I will get the Wishing Star with this" he stated.

He was holding a small box with a button on the top. However, when he was about to press it, a blue blur passed by, and the box was missing.

"Wowie! What do I have here? The thing that if gets destroyed ruins your plans, Eggy?" Sonic asked with a smirk, holding the box on his hand.

"Your Badniks were easy to destroy as always, Eggman" Sonic said with a mocking tone, which made Eggman growl. "Also, those two Metals that made you proud before? They're very dead now" he added, and then he launched the box on his hand to the ground with enough strength, which caused the box to destroy in thousands of pieces.

"NOOOO!" Eggman shouted in frustration, and then he groaned in anger. "Now you've done it, Sonic!" he screamed in pure rage.

"What? Defeat you? I always do that, Eggman" Sonic said with confidence. "I don't understand what made you think you could beat me" he added.

"Oh, you think this is it, Hedgehog?" Eggman asked with a grin. "This isn't over until I say it. And as I warned before..." he added, pulling out a button and pressing it before Sonic could make a move.

Then, a series of missiles came out from below the Eggmobile, and those missiles were gathered to create a giant missile. After that, Eggman moved a bit the Eggmobile so the missile could be pointing at the sky.

"If I can't get my wish, then no one will!" Eggman stated, then he launched the missile towards the sky or rather said, towards the Wishing Star.

Sonic immediately jumped and tried to get attached to the missile, but then Eggman moved his Eggmobile and crashed against Sonic, causing him to fell in the ground.

Sonic stood up, shook his head and looked at the missile almost reaching the atmosphere, then he groaned.

Sonic, however, realized something, as he then gulped an idea he just had... a very bad one and mortal if not executed properly.

"I know I shouldn't use the Chaos Emeralds if I don't have at least 6 of them... But desperate situations call for desperate measures" Sonic stated with a determinate look.

Sonic then focused his energy on the four Chaos Emeralds he had, as they appeared and spin around him before getting inside of his body.

Then, a white flash appeared suddenly, and now Sonic's body turned completely pink, his quills lifted a bit and his eyes became red. Also, his winter gear disappeared and his regular white gloves and regular shoes returned instead.

"So Hasbro gives more budget to the YouTube 5 minute-shorts animators for new looks, while the Netflix-animators have a limited budget that makes them use the Super Sonic Pink model of Episode 2 instead of making a new one with my winter gear..." Sonic said with a bored expression. "I'm never getting used to this" he added.

After saying that, he boosted towards the sky, leaving a shining pink trial behind, while Eggman covered his eyes and gave a bored expression as well.

The Marestream was almost arriving to Maretime Bay, when the group saw a pink object boosting towards the sky.

Knuckles pulled out some binoculars and zoomed them to take a better look at the pink object... just to gasp when he saw that it was Sonic, transformed in some kind of Super Sonic pink variation.

"No one can use the power of the Chaos Emeralds if there isn't at least 6 of the 7" Knuckles explained with a frown.

"But we only have 4 of them" Tails pointed out, still driving... then he realized something. "Wait a second... you're telling me that he––" he tried to ask.

However, exposing his body to only 4 Chaos Emeralds was starting to show its effects, because he was feeling exhausted despite being flying just for a few seconds.

He felt sleepy, very sleepy, but then he shook his head and focused back on the missile.

The amount of tiredness on his body was alarming, he knew that, but he wasn't going to allow Eggman to leave with a happy smile. He never did it before, and he wasn't starting now.

Finally, Sonic reached the missile, crashing his body against it, which caused it to explode in the air, not only saving the Wishing Star from being destroyed, but also Maretime Bay's Wishday.

Sonic sighed in relief, and seeing that his work was done, he decided to return to the ground at fast paste.

The Marestream landed in front of the Brighthouse, and the whole gang got out of it to see the explosion in the air.

The gang looked around for Sonic, until Sunny managed to see a pink light coming from the sky. "There!" she said, pointing with her hoof at the direction of the pink light.

Sonic descended in slow paste, until he finally touched the ground, where he couldn't take the power of the Emeralds anymore and he let them go. The Emeralds feel in the ground, and Sonic fell on his knees as he started to cough and breath heavily. Also, his winter gear returned after loosing the Emeralds.

Tails, Knuckles and Pipp were the first ones to immediately ran towards Sonic, while the rest just followed on a slower paste.

Sonic shook his head a bit before finally standing up and looking at his friends with a weak smile. "H-Hey guys..." he greeted weakly. "S-Sorry for give you a scare there... b-but I did it!" he cheered, pointing at the sky.

"I-I've been exposing to Chaos Energy for 20 years" Sonic said with a smirk. "I-I'm not saying I can handle less than 6 Emeralds, but I can survive it at least" he pointed out.

"What was that pink glow up, by the way?" Sunny asked, as she arrived along Hitch, Izzy and Zipp.

"I don't know" Sonic said honestly. "Usually is a golden glow up, but I guess that, since I was exposed only to a few Emeralds, it gave a pink color instead of the golden usual one" he guessed.

"Well, please never do that again!" Pipp begged with anger. "What happened to the "try to not get yourself killed" thing?!" she asked concerned and mad.

"It was either using the Emeralds or loosing the Wishing Star. I wasn't going to allow the second one" Sonic said with a smile. "And, if I was going to die, at least knowing I stopped Eggman one last time would have made it worth it" he added with honesty.

"Ugh, you've gotta be kidding me..." Sonic groaned, slowly turning around to face Eggman with a bored expression.

"Well, I suppose this is the part where I course you and all of that for ruining my plans..." Eggman guessed with his arms crossed. "But I left the oven on back on the hideout, and I'm honestly really exhausted after you made me loose everything today" he pointed out.

"I'm cooking some chicken left from the Thanksgiving dinner I had with myself, of course" Eggman replied. "Anyways. I could say It was a pleasure to meet you, Mane 5, but I hate to lie to my enemies" he stated, before turning his Eggmobile around. "Oh, and Sonic, expect to hear of me more from now on. Holiday season will be calm, but I don't promise anything after New Year" he warned, closing the capsule and boosting away from there.

Sonic rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Whatever you say, Egghead" he said with a bored expression.

"What is he, anyways?" Hitch asked confused, looking at Team Sonic. "Like, I can tell you guys are the animals you claim to be, but what in the name of Equestria was him?" he questioned again.

"Well... he's an 'animal', I think?" Tails tried to explain. "It's hard to tell, since you never saw one before, but he's what we call a human" he added.

"Although, here among us, Eggman is really one human in a kind" Sonic said with a mocking smirk. "Didn't you saw his head shaped like and Egg? He's literally the only human being with such a weird feature!" he added.

The rest of the group just laughed at the joke, and Sonic sighed in relief, glad that he could soften the tension a bit.

Minutes later, after Tails picked up the Chaos Emeralds and putted them back on the chest, because somehow Eggman didn't saw them in the ground, the gang made their way towards the top of the Brighthouse to see the Wishing Star.

"What a great idea, Sunny, and we had time to do everything!" Pipp said with a smile.

But then, Izzy gasped in worry. "I didn't have time to do everything!" she said in concern.

"Ugh! I didn't have time to get you presents!" Izzy cried out with frustration. "I'm probably the only one that's empty-hoofed" she said in concern.

"No, you're not" Knuckles told her. "I didn't even remembered we could buy gifts..." he confessed with a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, we kinda forgot that while shopping..." Tails added, scratching his head in embarrassment.

"Oh, it's okay!" Sunny assured with a smile. "We don't need to exchange gifts. Because we have each other" she pointed out.

"Sure it does!" Sunny argued back, still smiling. "Hitch shared his special family tradition, Izzy showed us the mystical Wishing Tree all lit up, Pipp and Zipp gave us the gift of music, Knuckles shared a sacred tradition of his people and Sonic and Tails will share their special memorial tradition for a loved one!" she explained.

"But the best part is... we got to experience the holiday together!" Sunny added with a smile. "Which is all I really wanted anyway: A magical time spent with all of you" she finished.

"Glad you asked" Sunny replied, taking out her phone and raising her hoof. "Wait for it" she instructed with a smile. "Wait for it..." she instructed again, as the Wishing Star was almost over the Brighthouse. "Continue to wait for another second and..." she kept instructing.

"You ask me of all people to wait, you know patience is not one of my strengths, woman!" Sonic said with anxiety.

Now that the Wishing Star was above the Brighthouse, it shone bright in front of the rainbow lightning. Then, the Unity Crystals started to resonate as well, as they suddenly projected the Mane 5 Cutie Marks in the sky.

And then, suddenly his electrical powers awakened, but not only his: Tails and Knuckles' powers woke up as well, confusing the trio since they didn't did this on purpose.

Then, a small trial of their power was absorbed by the Unity Crystals, that soon enough projected Team Sonic's faces on the sky as well.

"Me neither..." Tails said with worry. "But I don't think it matters right now. Is the holidays, after all, so let's take things one problem at a time" he stated.

"I like that plan!" Zipp said with a smile, now side hugging Tails, as the fox blushed a bit but side hugged her as well.

Sunny just smiled at him, and then at the sky. "It already came true" she assured.

Either Misty turned the oven off before he arrived, or he forgot that he turned it off himself before leaving. Either way, the chicken was ready and he ate it silently.

He was used to be defeated by Sonic already. At first it was just anger, but then a new idea formed on his mind, and his motivation was renewed. However, this time something changed.

He won't ever admit this to anyone, but Metal Izzy and Metal Hitch really grew on him in the last months as he gathered the materials to repair them properly. They were killing machines, absolutely, but when they acted a bit more normal... he could feel like they were his own sons.

It wasn't so far from reality, anyways. He created them, after all, but still... he never saw himself as a father figure, even if he was pretty much a dad over Misty by how he defended her against Opaline.

But he couldn't understand how's that two of his AI's grew on him so quickly. Many of those before, Metal Sonic included, only filled him with regret, while Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy stood there to the end. They didn't revealed against him, they didn't did whatever they wanted, they just followed orders. Sure, they doubted him sometimes, yet they still obeyed anyways.

"What a Christmas..." Eggman groaned. "For some reason, loosing those two robots feels worse than loosing the Wishing Star against Sonic..." he complained.

However, soon enough he realized that he lost the bodies, but not the AI's. Their codes were still on his database, and he could just built up new bodies...

But then a new idea popped in. Despite their flaws, both Metal Izzy and Metal Hitch had something that made them unique and loyal: Metal Hitch looked at him as a leader, a commander, so he was up to hear his every task, even if it sounded stupid or unimportant; Metal Izzy looked at him as a father, as her family, her creator, so she was more childish and playful around him, even calling him 'daddy', but she still was a killing machine if he told her to be so.

"What if... I combine the best of both of them... to create a new AI?" Eggman muttered to himself.

He putted the plate with chicken aside and walked to the computer. Clicking like a maniac on his computer, he opened Metal Hitch and Metal Izzy's IA database.

"If I can extract that military attitude and obedience with no hesitation from Metal Hitch..." Eggman said, as he tapped on his computer and moved some specific codes from Metal Hitch's AI to a new one. "... And combine it with the cheerful attitude and wish of a family from Metal Izzy..." he added, now moving specific codes from Metal Izzy's AI to the new one.

Once he realized the new AI he made, having the best of both of his successful AI's, he couldn't help but smile brightly. Perhaps this could work after all.

"Now, let's give you a proper name" Eggman stated, and after a few seconds of thinking, he tapped on his computer at fast paste. "Code-name: Sage" he wrote, then he tapped the enter button to create the AI.

After a few minutes, the AI was completed, and it started to turn on on Eggman's computer.

"Hello, doctor" Sage, Eggman's new AI, greeted, which made Eggman's smile grow bigger.

Back at the Crystal Brighthouse, the Mane 5 and Knuckles were playing a board game.

Sonic and Tails, however, were decorating their memorial tree for Longclaw. It was more than just a regular decorated Christmas Tree, it also had some slight details that made it clear it was in memory of Longclaw, like some owls decorations, brown ornaments... and a picture of Longclaw in the middle of the tree that Tails just placed.

Sonic was holding Longclaw's scarf in his hands, looking at it with a nostalgic look, then looking at the tree with a saddened expression. Once Tails stepped back, Sonic placed the scarf around the tree like if it was a garland.

Once it was done, Sonic also stepped back, and both him and Tails stared at it with sad smiles.

Sonic gave him a side hug and smiled at him. "She's here with us, lil' bro. Right here" he assured, pointing at his heart, which made Tails touch his chest softly and smile, somehow fighting the urge to cry. She may not have been her biological mother, but he definitely loved her as a mother as much as she loved him as a son.

Sonic himself wanted to cry as well, but he could fight the urge because he didn't wanted to kill the happy atmosphere of the holidays for the others. After all, it was spending time together what Longclaw loved about Christmas, so he kinda saw it like a way to respect that.

After a few minutes, they both decided to join the others in the living room. But once they arrived and sat down, Izzy suddenly reminded something.

"Wait! I just remembered I did get you ponies something else!" Izzy said with a cheery smile, then she moved to the back of a couch ash she hummed to herself, while Sunny and Zipp looked at each other confused and Sonic and Tails looked at Knuckles, who shrugged since he didn't knew what was Izzy doing either. "Ta-da!" she exclaimed, as she levitated 8 boxes and gave one to each of the members of the group.

"You know, air from the clouds!" Izzy pointed out with her hooves. "Zoom and Thunder said those were your favorite kind!" she pointed out.

"I'll gave you girls the context later" Sonic whispered to them, as the ponies in the group started to laugh

"Whatever you're going to say, think about Izzy's feelings first" Tails whispered to him as a warning, so Knuckles just close his mouth.

"Oops!" Izzy said a bit embarrassed. "And Warm Wishiehoof to all ponies" she corrected herself, with her horn now turning yellow.

Suddenly, Pipp remembered something as she moved away and approached to the fireplace, taking out her phone and looking at something.

As she stood there, Zipp saw something over the fireplace near the TV behind and smirked, then she turned to Sonic.

"Hey, Romeo" Zipp called out in whispers with a smirk. "Perhaps you should take a closer look to where Pipp is standing right now" she added in a teasing tone.

Sonic raised an eyebrow confused, and not only him, but all the others looked at where Pipp was standing. It took him a while, but Sonic finally noticed the mistletoe over her.

The others just giggled, and some like Knuckles and Hitch covered their mouth to not burst out laughing, while Sonic just smirked and rolled his eyes.

"I see where are you going, Princess" Sonic said on a mocking tone. "Okay! I'll please you this time only" he stated, standing up and walking towards Pipp.

"So were going for the bets now, huh?" Knuckles asked with a challenging look. "Alright, it's on! 10 bucks he won't do it!" he stated with confidence.

Sonic just lay on the wall near the fire place with a relaxed smile, while Pipp kept looking at something.

"You know, Little Pipp..." Sonic called out, while Pipp finally noticed him, so she putted her phone aside and payed attention to him. "You still owe me something" he said, now looking at her.

Instead of replying with words, Sonic stood in front of her and pointed upwards with his finger. Pipp looked up and finally noticed the mistletoe.

"Hang on, isn't that a mistle––" Pipp tried to ask... but then her words were cut off when Sonic kissed her.

It took Pipp completely off guard that she didn't knew how to react, her eyes were simply widely open, her wings opened and her face turned red entirely.

Sunny, Izzy and Tails gasped in both shock and excitement at Sonic's move, while Knuckles and Hitch looked on with their jaws dropped and Zipp just smirked at them.

Still with their jaws dropped, Knuckles payed the ten bucks he found earlier, and Hitch payed 10 bucks on his own.

Tails snapped a picture of Sonic and Pipp's kiss down the mistletoe. "I'm definitely mocking them with this!" he stated.

Sonic finally broke the kiss and looked at Pipp at her eyes. "There, Princess Petals. We're even now" he said with a slight blush and a smirk, walking back to his seat with the rest, leaving Pipp in a shocked state as she tried to process what just happened.

Sonic and Tails were at a hill, as Tails held a floating lantern on his hands and Sonic held a letter on his hands.

"Dear Longclaw..." Sonic's voice was heard, as he read what was on the note. "Like every year, I'm here to bring you some updates about my life" he read.

Sonic attached the letter to a string on the floating lantern, while Tails made sure to not let the lantern go yet.

"I'm in an entire new world with talking ponies" Sonic kept reading. "I know it sounds weird, but it isn't at all. In fact... I feel more in home here than I ever did in Green Hills" he confessed.

With the letter attached, Tails finally let go the lantern, as it started to float in the air and, soon enough, it got lost in the sky.

"I met new friends, somehow new enemies... I even fell in love!" Sonic said with a chuckle. "I know you'll adore her if you were here. I still miss you, Tails misses you too... but we have learned to live with that pain, just like you taught us to do. I still don't know if we are in this world because of destiny, coincidence or just by accident... But we'll eventually find out, I can feel it!" he stated with a confident tone. "I love you, Longclaw. Thanks for being my family, and I hope you have found eternal peace wherever you are right now..." he finished reading.

"Yours truly... Sonic and Tails, your sons" both Sonic and Tails' voices spoke, as the two of them watched at the sky with smiles, hopping that Longclaw will get their message wherever they are.

Tails looked at Sonic with a smile and punched him slightly on his shoulder. "Merry Christmas to you, Sonic" he told him with a smirk.

Sonic smirked back at Tails and ruffled his hair a bit. "Merry Christmas to you too, Tails" he said cheerfully.

And after that, the two of them just stood there, side hugging each other and looking at the night sky.

Sonic The Hedgehog x My Little Pony: Make Your Mark - Season 1

by BronySonicFan

10. Winter Wishday